The Texas Education Agency said it would temporarily stop enforcing Governor Greg Abbott’s ban on mask mandates on Thursday, and the state Supreme Court issued a ruling allowing school districts to require face coverings. Both decisions are temporary.
The agency said in new guidelines it would immediately stop enforcing the ban on mask mandates until the lawsuits are resolved.
In a turnaround, the agency’s new guideline requires schools to notify their local health department if a student tests positive. The school must also notify students in the same class and those who share extracurricular activities.
With coronavirus hospitalizations rising again in the state and approaching last year’s peaks, Abbott has resisted calls for new mandates and doubled his ban.
The ban on the governor’s mask mandate has made its way through the courts as school districts continue to challenge it. Seven counties and 48 school districts have defied the governor by ordering mask mandates, The Associated Press reported. Several major cities, including Dallas, San Antonio and Houston, have violated the governor’s ban.
School districts say they need mask mandates to counter a confluence of factors — including the contagiousness of the Delta virus variant and the fact that people under 12 are not yet eligible to be vaccinated — that are sending more children to hospitals , especially in areas of the country where the virus is on the rise, such as Texas.
Last week, after Mr Abbott’s ban suffered at least three legal setbacks, state attorney general Ken Paxton said he was taking the matter to the state’s Supreme Court. The setbacks were in areas with Democratic leaders, rampant cases and rising hospitalizations.
The state Supreme Court sided with the governor on Sunday, temporarily ruling that schools could not mandate masks.
Thursday’s ruling rejected the governor’s request to block a judge’s temporary restraining order in Travis County, which allowed mask mandates. According to the court, the attorney general should have brought his case to court first.
On Tuesday, Mr Abbott’s office announced that the governor, 63, had tested positive for the coronavirus and had no symptoms, but had begun receiving monoclonal antibody treatment. The governor received his first vaccine dose in December.
