A school district in Dallas is keeping its mask mandate in place when school reopened Monday, defying Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and a Texas Supreme Court ruling that temporarily blocked local mandates.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said on Twitter that Dallas schools must obey the Sunday ruling, but Michael Hinojosa, superintendent of the Dallas Independent School District, said he believes the decision applies only to the county.
“We’re going to keep the mask mandate in place,” Mr. Hinojosa told CNN. “School districts were not mentioned in the order. My name was not mentioned in the order.”
He argued that just because Mr. Paxton tweeted at his school, it doesn’t mean the ruling impacts his district.
“It does not. We have teams of attorneys looking at this, and we need to protect the safety of our students,” Mr. Hinojosa said.
The debate over mask mandates is unfolding as the delta variant of the coronavirus rampages through the country, particularly in the South.
Texas accounts for 10,000 of the roughly 75,000 people hospitalized for COVID-19 in the U.S. and ranks eighth in the nation in hospitalizations per population, at 37 per 100,000, according to The New York Times tracker.
Reports of pediatric hospitalizations are rising, too, raising questions about how to keep school children safe as they mingle at the start of the academic year.
Mr. Hinojosa said he asked school personnel to be “benevolent but firm” in enforcing the mandate, though didn’t say how they’d compel compliance.
He said a parent could sue him in the coming days, which would open a new legal fight, though he thinks he is on solid ground for now.
“I may get a $1,000 fine,” Mr. Hinojosa said. “But it doesn’t matter what the consequences are … as long as we can legally do it. Once the Supreme Court rules it applies to Dallas ISD, then I will comply. You know, we’ve won in the court of public opinion.”
A separate Dallas County district, in Irving, said it will comply with the order until it gets further guidance.
“Although masks are optional, we trust our employees and all other stakeholders to take personal responsibility,” the district tweeted. “As a community, we have a shared commitment to protecting not only ourselves but also those around us.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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