San Diego Superior Court Judge Cynthia Freeland issued a temporary restraining order on the state’s January plan for reopening schools, which the parents in the suit say has “arbitrary” restrictions that have stalled local efforts to resume in-person classes. Now, any of the rules the state had enforced can be disregarded, and the state can’t apply any new restrictions to the North County region.

The order is “exciting news,” one of the parents in the lawsuit, Melanie Burkholder, told KUSI on Monday. She added that the goal of the lawsuit was to resume five days a week of in-person instruction as soon as possible and bring an end to the state’s “back and forth” guidance on safe reopening of schools.

“We have been really working hard at this for an entire year,” Burkholder said. “It is just so amazing to have the victory—a judge that says actually there’s an injunction now against the state where they can’t impose these ridiculous nonscientific orders on students.”

She added that the order is also a win for three school districts that got the approval to reopen from North County but were denied the waiver by the state. Burkholder said the order made the issue “moot” for the districts, so their schools are moving forward with a hybrid in-person schedule as fast as possible.

California’s Safe Schools for All Plan permits elementary schools to open in counties in the purple tier and if the rate of new coronavirus cases is less than 25 per 100,000 residents, according to EdSource. Grades 7 through 12 are permitted to reopen in counties in the red, orange or yellow tiers and must have a new daily case rate of seven or less.

The state’s plan “had and will continue to have a real and appreciable impact on the affected students’ fundamental California right to basic educational equality,” Freeland wrote. According to KPBS, the parents’ lawsuit specifically raised an issue with a requirement that students are to be spaced 4 feet apart or learn in “stable groups” that don’t mix.

Burkholder said the “arbitrary” guidance on students’ social distancing wasn’t supported by the recommendations of the “glorious Dr. Anthony Fauci” and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which announced in February that in-person learning was not associated with “substantial” transmission of the virus.

According to Burkholder, the parents in the lawsuit demonstrated how the mental and academic well-being of their children has been threatened by the stalled and confusing effort to reopen classrooms. The plaintiffs said some of their children have expressed suicidal thoughts or attempted suicide after hearing the news that remote learning would continue.

On March 1, California Governor Gavin Newsom agreed with the Legislature on a $6.6 billion budget package to fund a safe return to in-person learning. The package would fund provisions including ventilation upgrades and coronavirus testing as well as expanded summer school opportunities and mental health services to address students’ needs following the pandemic, according to a press release.

“Since the height of the winter surge, we have successfully shifted the conversation from whether to reopen schools to when,” said Newsom. “Now, our collective charge is to build on that momentum and local leadership, and—just as critically—do whatever it takes to meet the mental health and academic needs of our students, including over the summer.”

A California Department of Public Health spokesperson told Newsweek that progress in vaccination of school staff, ample resources for school safety and reduction of transmission rates mean middle and high schools throughout San Diego County can reopen for in-person instruction this week.

“We will continue to lead with science and health as we review this order and assess our legal options, with a focus on the health and safety of California’s children and schools,” the spokesperson said.

Burkholder said Newsom’s reopening plan is a “Candyland game.” She also said cases of loneliness, isolation, depression and anxiety in children were “why we continue our fight this year to get these kids back on campus in person. We’re just so happy that the judge sided with us today.”

This story has been updated to include a comment from the California Department of Public Health.