Arlington school district updates COVID policies after contentious board meeting
Arlington school district will conduct contact tracing and offer temporary virtual learning for students from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade, but will not require masks for now, following multiple board votes on Thursday.
What remains unclear is what brought a sea of speakers to the dais and fueled contentious debate among the school board: whether the board will sue Gov. Greg Abbott over his executive order banning mask mandates in school.
Discussions about classes in the age of the COVID-19 delta variant turned to bickering among the audience and among board members during a special meeting Thursday evening. The district’s attorney drafted a lawsuit suing the governor under education code, which allows school systems to enforce policies such as dress codes, said board member Justin Chapa. Arlington required masks for students last year under the code.
Chapa cited a state Supreme Court ruling handed down late Thursday that upheld a temporary restraining order out of Travis County after Abbott asked the state’s top court to override the order.
“The bottom line is that Gov. Abbott’s order is not the law of Texas tonight,” Chapa said.
A couple of his colleagues were not convinced. Member Bowie Hogg called Chapa’s commends “disingenuous,” and raised issues with the emergency meeting the board called, then canceled, Friday afternoon to take up COVID protocol.
“Don’t try and fool people that this is not a mask mandate and about local control,” Hogg said.
The board voted 5-2 to table the lawsuit discussion indefinitely. Chapa and board President Kecia Mays voted against putting off discussion. The board also rejected Chapa’s motion to further debate the lawsuit.
Chapa’s request to mandate masks, put forward late in the meeting, met a similar rejection. Chapa and board member David Wilbanks were the sole votes in favor of a mandate.
Board member Aaron Reich said he did not feel comfortable issuing a mandate when the board does not have enough data about infections and deaths due to the COVID-19 delta variant.
“Nobody wants this. Nobody wants to talk about this,” Reich said. “That’s the reality: the data is not there.”
Board member Sarah McMurrough suggested that the disctrict may have more luck encouraging mask-wearing than enforcement.
“We will get more on board to consider masking up, especially our children who are unvaccinated,” McMurrough said.
The board voted unanimously to resume contact tracing and offer temporary virtual instruction for children from pre-k through sixth grade through the teaching platform Canvas.
The votes followed over an hour of comments from more than 30 people, the majority of whom spoke against suing Abbott and virtual classes.
Speakers against mask mandates told board members they expected them to follow the governor’s orders and keep decisions about children’s health in the hands of parents. Some criticized board president Kecia May’s mask remaining on her chin during the Aug. 5 board meeting.
“COVID-19 is not going anywhere and it will continue to mutate,” said Dr. Stephanie Bangs, a dentist in Arlington, who was among the speakers. “Such is the nature of the virus.”
About a third of the speakers spoke in favor of the lawsuit, questioning why the school district was not doing more to protect children and staff.
“Without being able to enforce a mask mandate, unmasked parents are posing a risk to our children under the age of 12,” Pamela Torres said.
The crowd comprised a mix of parents, personnel and students in Arlington school district.
Public comment and board discussion remained rowdy throughout much of the evening. Those opposed to the mandate or a lawsuit punctuated comments from the opposite site and heckled those who went over time, and Mays asked multiple times for people to quiet down.
Before the meeting, Tammy Ho, a junior at Martin High School, said she has been uncomfortable starting the school year in classrooms more crowded than she remembers.
“It’s just super scary,” Ho said. “I don’t think you should be scared going to school.
As he waited for the open portion of the meeting, Josh Adams, a parent of two middle schoolers and an elementary schooler, said he felt offering virtual lessons would be a disservice to educators who have had to constantly adapt to pandemic norms.
“I think to do it now would be a big mistake,” Adams said.
Texas localities fight for local control
Arlington school district are among the latest school leaders to weigh legal challenges over Abbott’s July order banning schools from imposing mask requirements on students and personnel.
Challenges across the states have created a patchwork of legal battles.
The Texas Supreme Court ruling Thursday declined Attorney General Ken Paxton’s request to override a district court’s temporary order. The district court’s Sunday order granted temporary restraining orders to Harris County, the Southern Center for Child Advocacy and the La Joya school district. The state’s highest court overturned restraining orders Sunday affecting Dallas and Bexar counties.
Fort Worth Superintendent Kent Scribner’s mask mandate, issued last week after receiving a letter from over 100 Cook Children’s physicians about the importance of masking and social distancing, was temporarily blocked by district judge John Chupp and is pending a hearing Aug. 26.
Arlington school board member Aaron Reich said the Cook Children’s letter was not sent to his district and would be better served going to the state.
“That’s where it needs to go at this point,” Reich said. “This is at a state level.”
Board member David Wilbanks said nevertheless, it’s important to listen to local officials and medical personnel who have urged masking.
“I can tell you that the majority of parents are concerned about their kids’ safety,” Wilbanks said.
This story was originally published August 19, 2021 at 7:39 PM.
