Texas Won't Enforce Governor's Mask Mandate Ban for Now

U.S.|Texas drops enforcement of governor’s disguise mandate prohibition for now.

• Aug. 19, 2021Updated 10:45 p.m. ET

The Texas Education Agency said it would temporarily halt enforcing Gov. Greg Abbott’s prohibition connected disguise mandates Thursday and the State Supreme Court issued a ruling allowing schoolhouse districts to necessitate face-coverings. Both decisions are temporary.

The agency said successful caller guidance that it would instantly halt enforcing the prohibition connected disguise mandates until litigations were resolved.

In a reversal, the agency’s caller guidance requires schools to notify their section wellness department if a pupil tests positive. The schoolhouse indispensable besides notify students successful the aforesaid schoolroom arsenic good arsenic those who stock extracurricular activities.

As coronavirus hospitalizations person again surged successful the state, nearing past year’s peaks, Mr. Abbott has resisted calls for caller mandates and doubled down connected his ban.

The governor’s disguise mandate prohibition has been making its mode done the courts arsenic schoolhouse districts and parents person continued to situation it. Seven counties and 48 schoolhouse districts person defied the politician by ordering disguise mandates, The Associated Press reported. Several ample cities, including Dallas, San Antonio and Houston, person bucked the governor’s ban.

School districts accidental they request disguise mandates to combat a spike successful pediatric cases, conscionable arsenic they look the monumental task of trying to get students backmost to in-person learning and reverse the devastating setbacks experienced by a scope of students. A confluence of factors — including the Delta microorganism variant’s contagiousness and the information that radical nether 12 are not yet eligible to beryllium vaccinated — is sending more children to hospitals, particularly successful areas of the state wherever the microorganism is surging, similar Texas.

New regular cases successful Texas person accrued by 37 percent implicit the past 2 weeks, approaching the highest levels of winters, according to a New York Times database, arsenic the microorganism stretches hospitals successful hotspots to their limits. According to the astir caller information from the Texas Department of State Health Services, 829 students and 872 schoolhouse unit members had tested affirmative for the coronavirus arsenic of Aug. 8, the A.P. reported.

Last week, aft Mr. Abbott’s prohibition suffered astatine slightest 3 legal setbacks, the authorities lawyer general, Ken Paxton, said that helium was taking the contented to the State Supreme Court. The setbacks were successful areas with Democratic leaders, rampant cases and rising hospitalizations.

The State Supreme Court sided with the governor connected Sunday, ruling temporarily that schools could not marque masks mandatory.

Thursday’s ruling denied the governor’s petition to artifact a Travis County judge’s impermanent restraining bid that allowed disguise mandates. The tribunal said the lawyer wide should person taken his lawsuit archetypal to an appellate court.

In different ineligible fight, parents of young children with disabilities filed a national lawsuit against Governor Abbott connected Tuesday implicit his ban, arguing that it prevents their medically at-risk children from being capable to be schoolhouse safely.

On Tuesday, Mr. Abbott’s bureau announced the governor, 63, had tested positive for the coronavirus and had nary symptoms, but had begun receiving monoclonal antibody treatment. The politician received his archetypal vaccine dose successful December.