Loophole: Texas School Board Inserts Masks into Dress Code Policy

After the Texas Supreme Court agreed that Gov. Greg Abbott (R) can temporarily block mask mandates in Dallas and San Antonio, one Texas school board has found a loophole by inserting masks into its dress code policy.

In a statement, the Paris Independent School District said that the “dress code can be used to mitigate communicable health issues, and therefore has amended the PISD dress code to protect our students and employees.” The statement read:

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. Nothing in the Governor’s Executive Order 38 states he has suspended Chapter 11 of the Texas Education Code, and therefore the Board has elected to amend its dress code consistent with its statutory authority.

According to CBS News, the Paris Independent School District’s new dress code policy goes as far as to recommend masks for health reasons in order “to mitigate flu, cold, pandemic, and any other communicable diseases.”

In May of this year, Gov. Abbott defied the Biden administration when he signed an executive order “prohibiting governmental entities in Texas — including counties, cities, school districts, public health authorities, or government officials — from requiring or mandating mask-wearing.”

As the new school year approaches, local leaders in concert with Texas media outlets and the Biden administration have strongly opposed Abbott’s order. In a letter addressed to Gov. Abbott last week, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel A. Cardona stated that the governor’s order will prevent local districts from protecting minors against the coronavirus:

Texas’s recent actions to block school districts from voluntarily adopting science-based strategies for preventing the spread of COVID-19 that are aligned with the guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) puts these goals at risk and may infringe upon a school district’s authority to adopt policies to protect students and educators as they develop their safe return to in-person instruction plans required by Federal law.

The CDC, as well as the Biden administration, has called for mask requirements in schools this coming fall since only children 12 and older are eligible to receive the vaccine. During his press conference on Wednesday, President Biden said he will direct the U.S. Department of Education to use “all available tools” to combat governors who ban mask mandates in their states’ schools.

“Some politicians are trying to turn public safety measures — that is children wearing masks in school — into political disputes for their own political gain,” Biden said. “Some are even trying to take power away from local educators by banning masks in school. They’re setting a dangerous tone.”