A school district in Texas has announced an amendment to their dress code, reportedly requiring face masks for all members, ahead of the school’s reopening on Thursday.
An announcement issued on the website of the Paris Independent school district (PISD) on Tuesday pointed out Greg Abbott’s recent executive order doesn’t allow his office to “usurp the board of trustees’ executive power”.
The Texas governor’s executive order, issued last month, had said no governmental institution, including schools, could not require anyone to wear masks.
The small school district made the announcement on its website, citing its concerns for the health and safety of its students. The city of Paris, with a population of about 25,000, currently has almost 3,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases.
“The board [of trustees] believes 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,” read a part of the statement.
The announcement further cited a Texas education code chapter that they said would not allow the governor to interfere with this mandate. According to chapter 11 of the code, the trustees of a school district have the ultimate say in the management and supervision of activities of the schools in their district, and the announcement noted that the governor’s executive order did not explicitly suspend chapter 11.
The announcement was made on the same day that Abbott himself tested positive for the coronavirus.
In a discussion in a public Facebook group “Patriotic Parents of Paris Texas”, local parents expressed their anger over the issue.
“Wonder what they would do if EVERY Parent against this pulled their kid(s) from their district all that money they would lose if they would then rethink this ‘Dress Code’ BS!” one parent shared in the discussion.
The Guardian has reached out to the governor’s office as well as PISD for further comments.