Fort Worth public schools cannot require masks until at least January, court orders
The Fort Worth Independent School District must not require that people in its buildings wear face masks until at least mid-January under a Tarrant County District Court order filed on Friday that granted a temporary injunction in a lawsuit parents brought against the school system.
Judge John Chupp, in 141st District Court, ordered that the school district’s face-covering policy, that it has said is intended to limit the transmission of the coronavirus, was made without authority and is in violation of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order restricting local governments from making mask use compulsory.
Attorneys for the district and its superintendent, Kent Scribner, filed a notice in which they wrote that they intend to appeal the temporary injunction order to the Second Court of Appeals.
About 5,480 students and 400 teachers in the district were in quarantine on Friday after exposure to COVID-19, a district official said. Over the past week, 72 district staff and 465 students tested positive for the coronavirus, the official said.
Tarrant County public health authorities have reported 117 deaths caused by COVID-19 in the last seven days.
A group of parents whose children attend FWISD schools have sought court orders to prohibit district officials from enforcing a face-covering protocol.
Their lawsuit argues in an amended petition that the district’s board voted on Aug. 10 to adopt a mask requirement during a executive session that the suit asserts was a Texas Open Meetings Act violation. Scribner announced during the special board meeting that day that Fort Worth schools would require masks at the beginning of the school year.
The district’s attorneys wrote in a filing in the lawsuit that there is no evidence the board deliberated and voted to adopt the mask requirement that Scribner announced and that the board took no action then.
Chupp did not rule on Friday on the Open Meetings Act argument.
The judge referred to a Texas Supreme Court order in a Bexar County District Court case in which the Abbott order is also at issue.
“This case, and others like it, are not about whether people should wear masks or whether the government should make them do it. Rather, these cases ask courts to determine which government officials have the legal authority to decide what the government’s position on such questions will be.”
The status quo has been gubernatorial oversight, the Texas Supreme Court wrote.
The lawsuit lists parents Jennifer Treger, Todd Daniel, Kerri Rehmeyer and a mother who is not identified by her name as plaintiffs in the case.
At an Aug. 13 hearing at which he granted a temporary restraining order, Chupp suggested that it was improper for an unelected superintendent to determine the school system’s policy.
The Fort Worth school board on Aug. 26 approved a resolution authorizing the superintendent to implement a mask mandate if and when the court’s order is lifted.
Chupp’s order set a trial date in the case for Jan. 17 and stated the injunction will remain in place until then.
This story was originally published September 3, 2021 at 4:16 PM.
