Fort Worth school board calls special meeting over mask requirements
The Fort Worth school board called a special meeting for Tuesday in response to increasingly divisive demands from parents on whether or not children should be required to wear face masks at school, as COVID-19 cases again rise across the country.
On Saturday night, the board posted the special meeting on its website. The meeting agenda focuses on the tangle of litigation surrounding mask requirements in Texas schools. The legal actions include Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order that prohibits school mask requirements, subsequent lawsuits filed against the order and a restraining order granted Friday against FWISD’s mask mandate.
“Our strongest concern is always the safety of our students, employees, their families and the greater community,” School Board President Tobi Jackson said in a statement Sunday about the special meeting.
Jackson was the focus of a COVID-centered protest Saturday night in Fort Worth. Nearly 20 cars circled her home in a mock funeral procession that began at Eastern Hills High School. Parents demanded she call an emergency session about the mask requirement, and left signs and stuffed animals in a symbolic memorial outside her home.
Superintendent Kent Scribner announced last Tuesday that Fort Worth schools would require masks going into the school year, which starts Monday. However, four parents of FWISD students filed a petition Friday seeking a restraining order against Scribner’s mask mandate. At a hearing on Friday in 141st District Court in Fort Worth, Judge John Chupp granted the order, halting mask requirements once again.
The district put a statement out on its website about the decision, saying FWISD would honor the court order, but “strongly recommends that all students, parents, employees and visitors, please, consider the importance of wearing a face mask while we are still in the midst of the pandemic and COVID cases remain high.”
Warren Norred, the attorney representing parents who are opposed to a mask requirement, argued the virus was unlikely to result in death for children and referred to an assessment of a clinical psychologist that students would miss critical nonverbal communication, such as seeing a teacher’s smile, if masks are required.
Scribner said he issued the mask requirement after he received a letter signed by 125 physicians from Cook Children’s Health Care System that highlights the importance of masking and social distancing.
The Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council said Thursday that all staffed pediatric ICU beds in the 19-county North Texas trauma service area were full. On Thursday, a record 73 confirmed COVID-19 pediatric patients were hospitalized in the region.
Last Monday, the Dallas and Austin school districts said they will require students and teachers to wear masks on campus. Houston ISD officials approved a mask mandate Thursday. Everman also has a mask mandate.
The Crowley Independent School District and seven other Texas school districts filed a lawsuit against Abbott due to his executive order. Judge Jan Soifer in the 345th District Court in Travis County on Friday granted a temporary restraining order against the governor’s executive order.
Tuesday’s FWISD board meeting begins at 6 p.m. at 3150 McCart Ave. Speakers for public comment can sign up by calling 817-814-1956 until 4 p.m. the day of the special meeting and may sign up at the meeting until 5:50 p.m.
This story was originally published August 15, 2021 at 1:42 PM.
