Fort Worth school district’s ever-changing mask requirements leave students confused

Last week, Omar Marquez broke a piece of news to his students. Starting Monday, he told them, there will be a new rule requiring everyone at school to wear masks.

Marquez, a sixth grade science teacher at Applied Learning Academy in Fort Worth, wasn’t sure how the kids would react. But to his surprise, none of them complained. A few even broke into cheers.

But that rule didn’t even survive the school day. A state appeals court issued a ruling Monday blocking Fort Worth’s school mask requirement, marking the fifth change to the district’s mask policy in the past four months.

Teachers in the district say the long series of rule changes has been confusing for their students.

Kids like procedures and predictable rules, Marquez said. When rules change — and especially when they change several times — it can leave students confused and frustrated, he said.

Fort Worth mask mandate overturned on first day

Monday marked the first day the Fort Worth school district was able to enforce a new mask requirement after the Court of Appeals for the Second Appellate District of Texas lifted a temporary injunction barring the district from enforcing the rule. But Monday afternoon, the appeals court granted a motion to reinstate the injunction brought by the four parents who are challenging the district’s mask rule. That means the district can’t enforce the rule while the parents’ lawsuit makes its way through the court system.

Following the ruling, the district released a statement saying it would abide by the injunction. District officials and the district’s Board of Trustees will “stand firm in strongly encouraging” students and district employees to wear masks inside school buildings, according to the statement.

Even before the mask mandate was in place, most of Marquez’s students wore masks at school, he said. Out of about 130 sixth graders at Applied Learning Academy, only about a half dozen didn’t regularly wear masks, he said. Most students would rather be at school with their friends than isolated at home and if they have to wear masks to keep themselves and their friends from needing to quarantine, most of them are willing to do so, he said.

Cathy Gilbride, a sixth grade social studies teacher at Applied Learning Academy, said most of her students have a hard time understanding why adults are arguing about the issue. She tries to use the conversation as an opportunity to talk about individual rights and responsibilities, and where one person’s rights end and another’s begin.

Nearly all of Gilbride’s students wore masks even before the rule came into effect. The rule changes are confusing for them, she said, but sixth graders are flexible. Most are just happy to be back at school with their friends, she said.

“The kids are thrilled to be back in school. They’re ready to do anything you ask them to do,” Gilbride said. “They don’t have a problem with the masks if they get to be with their friends.”

Texas Disaster Act gives Abbott broad, but not total, authority

The conflict over school mask mandates stems from an executive order issued by Gov. Greg Abbott barring local governments, including school districts, from enforcing mask mandates.

Dale Carpenter, a professor at Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law, said the Texas Disaster Act gives the governor broad authority to issue executive orders when he declares an emergency, including an epidemic. In general, that authority hasn’t come into question, Carpenter said. But in this case, Abbott isn’t acting in a vacuum: dozens of school districts and county judges across Texas have issued orders that run contrary to Abbott’s order.

Ordinarily, in such conflicts, the order issued by the highest level of government would prevail, Carpenter said. For example, in a conflict between the federal government and a state government, the president generally wins out, he said. But Texas has an unusual system of executive power, he said. It gives no single person full authority, but instead divides executive power among the governor and many local authorities. In that sense, Texas’ governor is unusually weak, he said. That lack of a central, unilateral authority means courts are left to sort out conflicts between the governor and local authorities, he said.

Most observers expect the Texas Supreme Court will eventually side with Abbott, possibly on the grounds that state law gives the governor broad authority that courts shouldn’t second-guess, Carpenter said. But even if local governments eventually lose their cases, a lengthy court process may mean districts that have already instituted mask mandates can keep those rules in force until COVID-19 vaccines are approved for children and the delta variant is under control, he said.

Many sixth graders can’t yet be vaccinated

But that isn’t the case in Fort Worth, where masks are strongly suggested, but not required. Marquez, the science teacher, said he’s especially worried about his students this year. Sixth graders are particularly vulnerable, he said, because many haven’t turned 12, meaning they aren’t yet eligible to be vaccinated.

Marquez said he’s heard arguments from parents that masks make it difficult for students to learn phonics or affect their social and emotional well-being. But he argues that it’s far better for students to be at school wearing masks than at home, either sick with COVID-19 or quarantining after being exposed to the virus. Besides, he said, his students seem to have no problem wearing them.

“These masks are a way to keep our kids in school, to reduce the amount of transmission,” Marquez said. “And the students seem to be just fine with that.”