A federal judge has decided that the Texas school mask ban goes against the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Texas state and local officials have been going back and forth with its safety guidelines and practices for COVID-19 for months. Specifically, the decision to allow schools to implement a mask mandate or give schools the ability to block a mask mandate has been the biggest topic of discussion for Texas and several schools around the country.
On Wednesday, court documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas stated that a ban on masks in schools would violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. CNN reports that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott previously issued an order that blocked public schools from requiring students and staff to wear masks.
“Texans, not government, should decide their best health practices, which is why masks will not be mandated by public school districts or government entities,” said back in May. “We can continue to mitigate COVID-19 while defending Texans’ liberty to choose whether or not they mask up.”
Now, Texas independent school districts will be able to choose whether to implement mask mandates for in-person schooling. This comes after a disability advocacy group, Disability Rights Texas, filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of several Texas families, who claimed the virus spreading would create “an even greater risk for children with special health needs.”
“Children with certain underlying conditions who contract COVID-19 are more likely to experience severe acute biological effects and to require admission to a hospital and the hospital’s intensive-care unit,” the lawsuit said, CNN reports. “This includes children with conditions including Down syndrome, organ transplants, lung conditions, heart conditions, and weakened immune systems.”
