Paris ISD requires masks as part of dress code |

Paris ISD will require masks as part of its dress code when schools start Thursday following the Supervisory Board’s actions during Tuesday’s emergency meeting.

“The governor of Texas does not have the power to assume the exclusive powers and duties of the Board of Trustees to regulate and oversee the management of public schools in the district. Nothing in Governor’s Executive Order 38 states that he has suspended Chapter 11 of the Texas Education Code, and therefore the Board of has chosen to change her dress code according to her legal authority,” the district said in a press release after the meeting.

The coaches held a meeting at the Paris High School, where for more than an hour they heard from district employees, parents and members of the local medical community expressing opposing views. Doctors, parents and staff asked the council to protect children and staff by requiring face masks as locally active Covid-19 cases continue to rise rapidly. Some parents and staff members urged guardians to allow families to choose for themselves whether their children would wear masks.

“Shame on you,” Joshua Vorron’s parents said as he walked out of the cafeteria after the board voted to include masks in the dress code. During public comments, Vorron said his son was among those suffering mental health consequences for complying with the state’s mask mandate last year.

Dr. Amanda Green of the Paris-Lamar County Health District and Paris Regional Medical Center stressed how urgent the pandemic is again for the medical community, adding the 70 active cases reported by the health district today on top of the 435 active cases reported. already reported. PRMC had enough patients in need of ventilators that they ran out and had to look for others, he said. He reminded carers that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that even vaccinated individuals wear masks indoors.

Green also reminded carers that quarantine requirements were still in place, and after seeing how distance learning wasn’t going well for many families, his goal was to keep kids in school and safe.

This change is not permanent because the Trustee Dr. Bert Strom said the dress code would be reviewed at each monthly board meeting. Strom, who made the motion for a dress code change, said the words – “For health reasons, masks are required for all employees and students to reduce flu, colds, pandemics and other infectious diseases” – appeared on the advice of the district attorney.

The motion passed 5-1, with Trustee Clifton Fendley voting differently. Prior to the vote, Fendley said he was not against masks as a mitigation measure, but he believed the district was using loopholes to circumvent Governor Greg Abbott’s anti-mask mandate, and he believed it was against the oath of office.

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