Several states have been having record level spikes in COVID cases due to the Delta variant, particularly Texas and Florida. Florida’s governor DeSantis has been blocking businesses from requiring vaccine passports and has banned mandating masks in schools. The Miami-Dade ISD superintendent has said he’s weighing his options about mandating face coverings in school and will not let DeSantis’s threats influence his decision. Several public school systems in Texas are also fighting Governor Greg Abbott’s mask mandate ban in schools. Austin ISD has join Dallas in mandating mask wearing in school. Houston ISD is following suit and will be seeking a mask mandate from the school board. But the biggest win is San Antonio’s Bexar County school district who took their case to court. San Antonio has received a temporary restraining order against Abbott’s executive order. Below are a few more details from KSAT:
A Bexar County Civil District Court Judge granted the city and Bexar County’s request for a temporary restraining order against Abbott’s executive order banning mask mandates in schools.
Effectively, the ruling allows Bexar County and San Antonio officials to issue a mask mandate in public schools and other guidance like quarantine protocol — for now. Officials say they plan to have an order issued by the end of Tuesday. No details have been released yet on the guidance but officials will hold a live press conference at 6:10 p.m.
The order was granted after an hour-long hearing by 57th Civil District Court with Judge Toni Arteaga.
Arteaga said an affidavit from Metro Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Junda Woo weighed heavily in her decision, as did the vulnerability of children who are returning to school amid a surge in coronavirus cases.
“I don’t do this lightly,” Arteaga said.
The temporary restraining order will remain in effect until another court hearing slated for Monday.
With the ruling, the city and county will “immediately issue an order requiring masks in public schools and requiring quarantine if an unvaccinated student is determined to be in close contact with a COVID-19 positive individual,” according to a news release. According to documents presented in court, they will also require face masks for employees of Bexar County and San Antonio and visitors to city and county facilities.
I am so happy that these school districts are not playing with these foolish governors and the lives of children. Record numbers of children are being hospitalized with the Delta variant. I find it so irresponsible not to track and trace and require students to wear masks or be vaccinated if they are eligible. COVID cases have gotten so bad that Abbott is asking medical facilities to hold off on elective surgeries and recruit medical personnel from outside the state. Floriday has request 300 ventilators from the federal government. And still people are blindly following these idiots who are in some eternal d*ck measuring contest for the GOP. I feel bad for parents having to send their kids to school in districts that are not fighting against these mask mandate bans. I have several young second cousins who have to go back to school in a couple of weeks and I worry about them. I hope that San Antonio will be able to hold on to their restraining order when it goes up again on Monday. Simple mask mandates can save not only these children’s lives but the staff in these schools, too. In the meantime, I am hoping to assist Beto in Texas to get rid of Abbott. No one that self-centered and irresponsible should ever be in a position of power.
The City of San Antonio and Bexar County today filed a lawsuit challenging Gov. Greg Abbott’s authority to suspend state laws that give local officials the needed authority to cope with an emergency. MORE: https://t.co/f3zNla12JX pic.twitter.com/PrUpUvk044
— City of San Antonio 💪+💉= 💯 (@COSAGOV) August 10, 2021
The Dallas Independent School District says that everyone — students, employees and visitors — must wear a mask while on school property, starting today.
The mandate was imposed in defiance of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. https://t.co/LT2FBqrZtD
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 10, 2021
Despite taking almost no actions to stop the spread of COVID in his state, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has directed the Texas Department of Health to use staffing agencies to find additional medical staff from beyond the state's borders as delta overwhelms resources.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 10, 2021
photos credit: Avalon.red and via Instagram
I hate him SO much. I’m right there with you, Oya, on doing what I can to get of that mf jackwagon.
I live in Texas and can’t wait to vote against this clown.
I cannot agree more and wish I could like this x1 billion
I vote against him every time! Greg Abbot is the worst. I used to think Dan Patrick, who is waiting in the wings, was worse but they are basically the same. If it weren’t for Florida, this state would absolutely be the worst. Even the red deep south governors in Alabama and Mississippi aren’t as bad as these foolish, evil bastards.
Same here! I’m right in between SA, Austin, and Houston. My whole family is vaxxed but so many of the idiots around here don’t want to be responsible. Why do we have to pay the price for their selfishness? I’m not talking about the people who are economically suffering or who have health issues preventing them from getting the shots. I’m referring to the same people who tried to run the Biden bus off the road, who are harassing our school boards and city councils, don’t want to require any gun training or licenses, and who are filling the hospitals with their ignorant, stubborn, virus-infested bodies. They only care about themselves. What about the ones who now can’t attend school because they have disabilities that will kill them if they are exposed to covid? They are supposed to be federally protected under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. I’m so sick of this GOP crap with the lies and posturing. Isnt it bad enough that we have to deal with Ted Cruz and his wants-to-be-a-mime-who-cant-shut-up mouth?
Some parent with deeep pockets and the right set of circumstances will need to sue a district over the disparate impact that a lack of mask mandates imposes on the special ed population. They’re required to have ramps for wheelchairs. Being required to provide an environment free of communicable disease is not an undue financial burden and is required in order to provide the free and appropriate public education that every child with a disability is legally entitled to in the USA.
Me too. And every parent and every kid who has turned or will turn 18 between 2020 and November 2022 should vote against Abbott too. Their schools have been f’ed up for three straight years because Republicans can’t manage crises.
Small win and I hope it holds!
It shouldn’t be this hard for parents to keep their young children safe.
The stupidity of republicans in this country is literally killing people. My god. This is never going to end because republicans (YES, REPUBLICANS) made this political from the get go. I hate them.
Same. Abbott and DeSantis seem hell-bent on everyone getting Covid.
I hope this snowballs until Abbott is buried by it.
I hope so too, that’s been what ice wanted since COVID started and he started posturing. I hate him almost as much as orangellini.
Also, thanks celebitchy for coveting this! I’m in Dallas and San Antonio’s success hasn’t been on the news AT ALL. Dallas and Fort worth ISD are requiring too, mine wants to but doesn’t want to spend the money fighting it.
Yes! I miss Governor Anne Richards. She was sassy and awesome.
I live in Texas, Abott is playing politics why people are getting sick and dying. I hope Abbott is vote out of office next year. He should charge with crimes against humanity.
I don’t think I can ever forgive those who politicized the vaccine and mask-wearing.
This is so evil. How can you play god with children’s life like that? It’s great that some school districts are doing their best to protect their children, but to think that the government is actively trying to kill them is scary af. This makes me so angry.
I love how Abbott says wearing masks is about personal responsibility but abortion in Texas is about protecting the babies! So very convenient. A year+ of Covid has made me so angry. We could have been on the other side of this if we didn’t have to deal with vaccine denying jackasses & those a-holes who refuse to wear a mask. This could have been over. If the Karma bus is real, Abbott better check both directions very carefully before he crosses the street.
Yes, the irony of the pro-lifers who won’t take a vaccine that protects the lives of everyone is weird.
regardless of where you live, every parent still has the right to insist their own child wear a mask re: your cousins.
But that won’t save them. We all know, my mask protects you, your mask protects me. So this is useless. Without an N95 mask, it’s useless, and I’d like to know where parents are supposed to get a hold of youth-sized N95 masks. I really don’t know, maybe you can? That again puts the burden on the vaccinated. NOT acceptable. Keep their unvaccinated, unmasked, unwashed, stinkasses home!
Not to mention the fact that N95 masks are expensive compared to cloth or surgical masks. And you can re-use them either, so you’d have to buy 1 per day. Lots of families can’t afford that.
Hi. My kids use Halo life masks. They have replaceable filters that go inside a cloth mask. I also use this mask. My interpretation of their stated effectiveness is that these are similar to N95.
They are really comfortable and I’m so grateful to have these for myself and kids. For all the parents out there. No high grade mask is cheap and I honestly think all kids in school who can’t get vaccinated should be given an N95 quality mask until vaccines are available.
I actually agree with this, in that I don’t think children under 12 should be required to wear masks in stores, restaurants, other settings where they will only be one of maybe a few children. Because as a vaccinated adult, I pose a greater threat to them than they do me, right? But school is another story, preventing spread from one child to another I can agree is important.
Cloth masks have never been about protecting yourself, it’s always been about stopping us from spitting on each other. Anti-maskers don’t really seem to understand this, but neither do some pro-maskers. Anyways I’m really glad I don’t have a kid under 12 right now.
So since my kids’ masks protect others and others’ masks protect my kids, then my kids have the “RIGHT” to protect others and the maskless have the “RIGHT” to infect the rest of us? This kind of logic is sociopathic.
Arkansas also has a law banning mask mandates. As of yesterday, Arkansas, population 2.8 million, had no available ICU beds. These people are killing each other and they are killing us.
They also had 80,000 vaccinations expire. The willful destruction is astonishing.
they’ve run out of icu beds in Austin as well, there’s a nursing shortage here as in so many places and the stupid so called “governor” is trying to get nurses from other states to come and pick up the load
I saw some white lady on CNN yesterday flipping out at a school administrator (i believe) screaming “YOU CAN’T FORCE MY CHILD TO MASK. WE WILL UNMASK” over and over. Personally I believe her children should be taken from her. I only wish I had been there. I had to turn it off after 30 seconds. She needed to land on her ass, and it was frustrating having to watch this. If I had been in the crowd I would have told her to keep her unmasked kids home, and mentioned that she probably doesn’t wash their asses either. Or her own. Because boy did this one have “STINKASS” written all over her.
Crazy how some people care more about tribalism than their own children. I feel terrible for her kid.
San Antonio born and raised and my youngest granddaughter lives there and was going to wear a mask anyway even though she’s fully vaxxed and going into 10th grade
I can tell you that the Mayor don’t play and has stated publicly that abbott has a callous disregard for life and I fully back him up
And now you see how Abbott and his fellow clown down in Florida are out here begging for medical personnel and ventilators for their respective states after doing everything in their power to downplay the virus and discourage residents from protecting themselves? They are both horrible people.
The problem is that while the big cities are stepping up (Austin, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio) nearly ALL of their big suburbs are going along with abbott. It’s a small plug in a big big hole.
Meanwhile abbott has the NERVE to ask for help from outside medical personnel because all our hospitals are swamped. The man has no shame about killing people
Remember, Abbott is the guy who made many of his millions from suing his neighbor and a landscaping company when a branch fell on him, causing his paralysis, yet one of his major campaign promises (and a lot of $$ to his election funds) and initiatives was to limit liability awards for medical lawsuits. Tells you a lot about who he is.
I have a friend in Texas who posted pictures of her grandsons’ first day of school. One of the first comments was someone who THANKED GOD there were no masks in sight! I just can’t with the abject stupidity of some people. If you can’t play well with others and don’t want to wear a mask or get a vaccine, then keep your ass at home!!!
And please, if you live in Texas and refuse to get vaccinated or wear a mask, stay out of my state! Houston acquaintances were visiting RI and MA, refused to mask up anywhere and were proudly making obnoxious comments to people who are voluntarily wearing them here. Our numbers are nowhere near Florida and Texas but people masking up indoors again is almost back to peak pandemic levels, at least the places I’ve been going.
I’m glad for this ruling and glad the individual school districts are standing up to Abbott. It’s one thing not to have a mask mandate (we do not have one anymore in my state). But its another to have a mandate BANNING mask mandates. Like, why not just let every county do what they feel is safest for them? I thought Rs were all about local government, why not let the local school boards and districts decide for themselves?
My boys dont start back until the Wednesday after Labor Day but I’m already telling them they will be wearing masks in school, regardless of what the BoE says. My county is red but my area of the county is more blue, so I know they will not be the only ones in masks.
My children go to school in Austin ISD and I was so happy to see they are requiring the students to wear masks. Both my girls are vaccinated but my two step sons are not (their mother forbids it, ugh) so that makes me feel a bit more safe. Also, I took my daughter to a Doctor’s appointment yesterday and her Doctor mentioned how this will also cut down on bulling that may have resulted in some kids wearing masks and some kids not wearing them which I did not even consider. I hate Abbott with a passion, but if they pass the voting bill we will be stuck with all of the Republicans forever.
Tick tock, DeathSantis. Your anti-mandate BS is next.
I’m guessing the only medical professionals who could be convinced to take one of these temporary jobs in Texas are the type who have refused to be vaccinated and/or have had no firsthand experience of treating COVID patients over the past 18 months. I feel like no amount of money could induce a rational medical professional to travel to a place where people are willfully sending themselves and their children to the ICU and will treat any hospital staff like dirt.
I’m in San Antonio and my son starts to school on Monday- this is such a huge relief.
I’m so thankful for Ron Nirenberg and Judge Wolff.
But what if, like my school board, doesn’t require masks? What are my rights as a parent? I’m scared to send my kids to school.
This is beyond infuriating. I live in Texas and work at a state university. Officials want everyone on campus, no masks, and no social distancing. In fact, they lowered the cap on online classes to force students to take in person classes. They want a vibrant campus.
Between the power grid failure during the winter storm and the no mask mandate, I’m convinced they are trying to kill us.
I’m so angry at the blatant disregard for human life, I don’t even know how to express it anymore. I’ve never voted GOP but next election I will be an active campaigner.
I’m a Texan and I’m so mad at him I could spit! It’s big government & hurting your freeDUMB to require masks but not big government to prohibit local governments and school districts from requiring masks? Help me make sense of that. No don’t bother. Doing nothing would have been better than what he’s doing to the state. All for political purposes to blame the border surge on rising cases when everyone knows it’s the dumbasses already in this state who refuse to vaccinate and mask.
The border / migrants argument falls apart instantly (not to mention blaming an ethnic/foreign group for disease is exactly what Nazis did). If the migrants are bringing in all the Covid, then how did Arkansas, Missouri, Alabama, Florida and Tennessee light up first and not Texas, Arizona, New Mexico & California? Did all the migrants sneak through the border states and not breathe on anyone until they got to non-border states?
Politically, I don’t know how TF this benefits Abbott. There are more educators and parents who are concerned about their kids than there are who hate masks. We just went to see our Texas pediatrician this morning and she said, the evidence is ample that masks worked – Texas had very low transmission in schools last year. So why mess with a good thing? And she also said she feels the anti-mask population is just louder than the parents who want sane safety measures. She said that’s based on the parents in her (suburban Dallas) practice.
I think it’s the same as the Arkansas law – they thought the COVID threat was over and went for cheap, easy political points. And then, whoops, it turns out it’s still a real thing that can’t be wished away and they’ve signed stuff and made a big deal about their “wins.” So now they can either cave or let people die, and well, we know which one they’re choosing. At least the Arkansas governor has expressed regret.
F@cking Abbott. God he’s got to go.
There’s something kind of interesting going on with my kid’s school in Michigan. Every letter or communication we’ve gotten from his specific school says masks will be “required” or “mandated regardless of vaccination status” for anyone entering the building including students, parents, staff, teachers, or visitors, but the communication we get from the district says that masks are “strongly encouraged” for everyone. So I’m wondering what’s going on there and hope that everyone that goes to his school will listen to the “mandated regardless of vaccination status” part and that the school is able to enforce that.
Not only is he risking children’s lives, he is putting them in the middle of the Republicans political war. We all know what school is like, peer pressure, wanting to fit in, wearing the right clothes, bullies. By making masks the ‘parents’ choice, it becomes yet another thing that kids can use as a status symbol or group identifier, against each other. Because if masks are optional, as soon as kids get out of sight of their parents, they will decide for themselves if they will wear a mask, not based on health, but based on peer pressure. He is setting schools up to be an environment of masters vs non-maskers. And he is doing this to children. It makes me so angry. It’s bad enough when politicians play these games with adults but you don’t do this to children.
Students living with special needs have the right under IDEA to a free and appropriate education. Appropriate could mean receiving services at home or in an isolated classroom, modifying their school days, the possibilities go on. Every student living with special needs will have their individual needs met. It is their absolute right to have their educational, emotional, behavioral/mental and physical needs met in the least restrictive environment possible. Unfortunately, an environment free from communicable disease cannot be afforded to anyone so that’s not actionable.
It would be nice if you guys were on to something regarding wearing masks in school to provide additional protection to students needing accomodations and or modifications, not to mention everyone else, but school district lawyers have already thought of that.
Edit- I am sorry @willow, I don’t know how this came to be a reply to your comment. Forgiveness please.
I don’t understand why this simple public health measure is the battle that Republicans are fighting. No, the kids aren’t suffocating. I have yet to hear any child complain. Even when little, they understand that wearing a mask helps protect their friends, teacher, baby cousins, and grandma. The only thing my son cares about is the colour of his mask because he likes certain ones with smiley faces and Spider-Man. I can’t believe these people want to sacrifice children to make some dumb political point about freedom. Thank gosh the judges seem to still have integrity and are correctly applying the law.
Hey, Abbott and DeSantis are gunning to be the next Trump, so they care less how high the bodies stack in their wake so long as they can froth up the base. As well, the Repubs. are hoping keeping Covid going will wreck Biden’s administration–and give them either a midterm sweep or a White House shot.
I got the hell outta Texas, and I’ll be hot Damned if I ever go back.