Judge extends restraining order against COVID-related mask mandate in Fort Worth schools
After a hearing that lasted more than two hours Thursday morning, a judge extended a temporary restraining order that prohibits a mask mandate in the Fort Worth school district amid the recent surge in COVID cases.
Judge John Chupp extended the TRO until 9:30 a.m. on Sept. 3, when another hearing will be held on a group of parents’ request for a temporary injunction on the issue.
Several Fort Worth parents were seeking a temporary injunction at Thursday’s hearing to stop Fort Worth school district officials from enforcing a face-covering rule. The judge said the hearing would need to continue on Sept. 3 to allow more time for testimony.
Attorneys for the parents and the school district presented witness after witness Thursday who testified on the pros and cons of wearing masks.
“There are many issues with them (masks) such as anxiety disorders, depression, lack of socialization and loneliness,” Dr. Melanie Webb testified by Zoom on Thursday morning, referring to kids wearing masks for a long time. But under questioning by an attorney for the school district, Webb could not cite research or studies.
Fort Worth parent and attorney Jason Smith, who supports a mask mandate, also questioned witnesses. He filed a petition this week with the court in support of Fort Worth school officials enforcing a mask mandate and opposing the temporary and permanent injunctions requested by the other group of parents.
“None of the witnesses presented by the parents who don’t believe in the mask rule brought any opinions that were backed up by science,” Smith said.
Smith’s petition for intervention in the case states that the Fort Worth district’s proposed requirement of wearing masks at school is lawful and enforceable just as it is to prohibit smoking at school to prevent cancer.
The hearing in 141st District Court in Fort Worth came 13 days after Judge Chupp first issued the temporary restraining order to halt the mask rule which was announced by Fort Worth ISD Superintendent Kent Scribner on Aug. 12.
Scribner had announced during a special board meeting that Fort Worth schools would require masks to begin the school year.
After the temporary restraining order was issued, Fort Worth school officials said they would honor the order, but they still recommended masks to be worn.
Smith wrote in his petition that Fort Worth school officials have the power to require students and staff to wear face coverings to stop spread of the delta variant of COVID-19 to a largely unvaccinated population of children. The petition calls Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s order precluding local government mask requirements irrational.
Smith, who has 11-year-old twins and a 7-year-old soon-to-be stepson in the school district, also sent a letter to Fort Worth school board member Roxanne Martinez on Aug. 9 asking that the board set a policy requiring all students and staff to wear masks.
In his petition to the court, he wrote that his daughter, an “11-year-old honors science student asks the court to allow FWISD to enforce its mask requirement to protect her, her classmates, and her teachers from a dangerous virus.”
Earlier this month, four parents of students who attend Fort Worth ISD and are against masks filed a petition seeking the restraining order and injunctions. If a temporary injunction is granted, the parents would seek a permanent injunction, according to Tarrant County court documents.
The 230-page lawsuit identifies parents Jennifer Treger, Todd Daniel, Kerri Rehmeyer and an anonymous mother as plaintiffs in the case.
In court documents, Daniel said he has two children attending Arlington Heights High School in the Fort Worth school district and noted he had past experience with the school’s mask policy.
The policy was damaging to his children last school year, leading to “poor school performance, trouble breathing, lethargy, fear of social stigma among peers, and even contempt from teachers,” he wrote in the documents.
The plaintiffs’ petition states that the district’s face-covering policy announced on Aug. 12 is an illegal act under Abbott’s executive order prohibiting local government mask mandates.
At the Aug. 13 hearing at which he granted the restraining order, the judge suggested that it was improper for an unelected superintendent to determine the school system’s policy.
On Aug. 17, the Fort Worth school board voted to join the La Joya school district lawsuit against Abbott’s order. The board was scheduled to meet at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday to consult with its attorneys regarding that case and the case in the Fort Worth court.
This story was originally published August 26, 2021 at 1:09 PM.
