Fort Worth school district will require masks, defying Governor Greg Abbott’s order
Fort Worth schools will require masks to begin the school year, Superintendent Kent Scribner announced Tuesday during a special board meeting.
Scribner said he is immediately directing a mask mandate for all students and employees indoors and on buses. The district will monitor COVID-19 data and revisit the protocol as needed, he said. Classes begin Monday.
“The safety of students and staff has and always will be our priority,” he said.
Fort Worth becomes the latest major urban school district to defy Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order preventing public schools from enforcing masks.
On Monday, the Dallas and Austin school districts said they will require students and teachers to wear masks on campus. Houston officials are set to discuss the issue this week.
Earlier Tuesday, parents and medical professionals asked for a mask mandate during public comments. They criticized the district’s previous policy, which ”strongly encouraged” mask-wearing.
“Kids are very unlikely to have severe illnesses or morality related to this [but] the more kids that do get infected, the more kids that are exposed, the more likely it is that a rare event can occur in our community,” said Blake Palmer, a pediatric specialist at Cook Children’s. “We have the ability to prevent ongoing spread of this, and kids are certainly vulnerable.”
Tarrant County is experiencing its highest weekly COVID case counts since mid-February. Vaccines have been authorized only for people age 12 and older in the U.S., meaning a significant portion of the district’s students will be unvaccinated at the start of the school year.
Scribner said his decision to enforce masks was made after received a letter signed by 125 physicians from Cook Children’s Health Care System that highlight the importance of masking and social distancing.
Board member Roxanne Martinez said she supported the superintendent’s decision 100%, as she says it aligns with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
Martinez said the Diamond Hill neighborhood, which she represents, has had low vaccination rates, so it was important to have students and employees wear masks to protect each other.
“I’m so relieved that I’m going to send my two fifth-graders back with masks and everyone else is going to be wearing masks,” she said.
The decision was solely made by Scribner, with no vote from the board.
Board president Tobi Jackson said the superintendent is allowed to make that decision on his own, and the board has to stand behind its superintendent.
“He issues those guidelines,” she said. “There will be questions, and they will have to work this out as time goes by, but I think what we saw is that everyone here cares about children.”
This story was originally published August 10, 2021 at 8:17 PM.
