Texas school district adds masks to dress code
Action aims to exploit loophole in state ban
A North Texas school district has made masks a part of its dress code for the academic year, hoping to exploit a possible loophole in Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s statewide ban on mandates regarding face coverings.
The Paris Independent School District announced Tuesday that the district of about 4,000 students would include the masks in the dress code after its board of trustees expressed “concerned about the health and safety of its students and employees.” The district, located about 110 miles northeast of Dallas, noted that Abbott’s executive order last month did not suspend a chapter in the Texas Education Code that gives school districts power to oversee health and safety measures, thus allowing Paris ISD officials to elect to “amend its dress code consistent with its statutory authority.”
“The Board believes the dress code can be used to mitigate communicable health issues,” the district said in a statement. “The Texas Governor does not have the authority to usurp the Board of Trustees’ exclusive power and duty to govern and oversee the management of the public schools of the district.”
Paris ISD appears to be the first in the state to use its authority to set a dress code requiring students and employees to wear masks, potentially setting up other school districts to do the same.
The school board held an emergency meeting Tuesday and voted 5-to-1 in favor of the measure, which will be revisited at the monthly trustee meetings and has the potential to be changed at a later date, according to the Paris News.
“For health reasons, masks are required for all employees and students to mitigate flu, cold, pandemic, and any other communicable diseases,” the measure reads.
Neither the governor’s office nor representatives with Paris ISD immediately responded to requests for comment early Wednesday.
The announcement came the same day that Abbott’s office said the governor had tested positive for the coronavirus. The governor said in a video posted to Twitter late Tuesday that he was vaccinated and not experiencing any symptoms.
Abbott is among the Republican governors who have resisted public health mandates aimed at stemming the tide of the virus’s delta variant, saying that parents should decide whether their children wear masks in school.