A patchwork of lawsuits, temporary restraining orders and court hearings is sparking confusion over mask mandates as families prepare to send their children back to school.

Now a temporary restraining order issued late Sunday night could give Texas school districts the ability to enact their own mandates, though state officials vowed to fight it. Richardson ISD used this order to justify keeping its mask mandate in place.

School officials and families are worried about the surge of cases driven by the highly contagious delta variant and want local leaders to be empowered to require masks, which are recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to mitigate the coronavirus’ spread.

“This back and forth is just disruptive to the operations of school,” Richardson Superintendent Jeannie Stone said. “I’m going to remain hopeful that the local context, the local decisions will be left to the superintendents based on data, based on input from health authorities in our community.”

On Sunday night, the Texas Supreme Court temporarily halted a restraining order that allowed Dallas and Bexar counties to issue county-wide mask mandates that covered public school districts. Under Dallas County’s mandate, 13 of the county’s 14 school districts had announced plans to require masks on campus amid a surge of cases driven by the highly contagious delta variant.

After the Texas Supreme Court’s decision, several Dallas County school districts started backtracking, making masks optional once again, though Dallas ISD held firm.

But that same evening, a Travis County judge granted a new restraining order that temporarily blocks Gov. Greg Abbott from prohibiting mask mandates in Texas public schools.

The restraining order was granted in a case involving The Southern Center for Child Advocacy. Officials from the center did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday but noted on the group’s Facebook page that the restraining order — issued by Judge Jan Soifer in the 345th Judicial District — was in effect statewide.

“It was not one of the TROs blocked by the Texas Supreme Court yesterday afternoon,” the group wrote.

Richardson Superintendent Jeannie Stone said the order allowed her district to keep a mask mandate in place as the school year is set to start on Tuesday.

“This ruling, at least temporarily, puts this decision where it should be — at the local level,” Stone said in a video announcement. In an interview with The Dallas Morning News, Stone said Richardson is committed to following the law and would adapt its decision making if the law changes.

The restraining order essentially allows individual districts the leeway to set their own mandates independent from their counties. Officials with the attorney general’s office asked the Supreme Court of Texas to block this order as well. The Texas Supreme Court did not grant the attorney general’s request on Monday for an immediate block based on the day before’s decision.

Texas Supreme Court

Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote to the Southern Center for Child Advocacy on Monday, asking the group to acknowledge on Monday that their temporary restraining order is “void and of no effect” because of the Texas Supreme Court decision.

Henry Green Bostwick II, an attorney representing the center, countered that he would withdraw the lawsuit against the state if Gov. Abbott altered his order to allow school districts to enforce mask mandates.

Paxton has vowed to take all school districts that violate Abbott’s mask mandate ban to court. Paxton falsely claimed Sunday evening that the Supreme Court’s decision ordered Dallas County and Dallas ISD to follow the governor’s order.

However, the decision did not mention Dallas ISD. A spokesman for Paxton did not return a request for comment on whether the attorney general planned to sue DISD over its mask requirement.

“Until there’s an official order of the court that applies to the Dallas Independent School District, we will continue to have the mask mandate,” Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said late Sunday.

At a ‘First Day of School’ event at the Prestonwood Montessori at E.D. Walker campus this morning, Hinojosa said he’d received words of encouragement from President Joe Biden for the district’s stance.

“The president said he was very proud of us, making this opportunity available to our students,” he said. “He was very genuine, and left a long message on my voicemail and thanked me for having the courage to stand up for our students and our community.”

Hinojosa said he’s been told that at least one parent has threatened to file a lawsuit against the district for its mask requirements. Until conditions change, all students will be expected to wear masks inside DISD facilities. For those who refuse, those children would be isolated from other students, he said.

“We’ll be nice, but we’ll be firm,” Hinojosa said.

Other school districts are signaling their intentions to jump into the legal fray, too.

DeSoto ISD trustees voted 5-2 on Monday night to explore possible legal action against the state over the mask mandate ban. For now, masks remain highly encouraged, but not required, in DeSoto.

“Our trustees let it be known that there is not an extent they will not go to, to protect the children, the families and the staff of DeSoto ISD,” superintendent D’Andre J. Weaver said.

Arlington ISD is expected to take up a similar vote later this week.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends universal masking for students and staff inside schools, regardless of vaccination status. The COVID-19 vaccine is not yet authorized for young children.

As schools and the state battle over mandates in court, parents are getting whiplash from the “yo-yo” of different decisions, said Denita Jones, whose 11-year-old son isn’t yet eligible for the vaccine. He’s supposed to start his first day of middle school in Richardson ISD Tuesday — unless she can pull off a last-minute transfer to one of Texas’ few full-time virtual options. Jones doesn’t want him at school if other children aren’t wearing masks.

“To watch the rates go up daily and not know for certain what my child’s education is going to look like is the most anxious I’ve been in years about anything,” Jones said.

She and her children have severe asthma, she said, and her family’s health has somehow become a political issue.

Jones said her mind is racing with different possibilities. Should she just go to CVS and tell them her son is 12 so he can get the vaccine ahead of his October birthday? She doesn’t see many good options.

“COVID is real to us,” Jones said.

But not all parents shared that same sense of dread.

At Dallas’ E.D. Walker Middle School, Ashley Newman said that her 11-year-old daughter was grateful to be headed back to class Monday. Newman’s daughter attended Los Angeles Unified School District in California last year, spending the entire school year in a virtual setting.

“Virtual school for us, as it is for a lot of parents, was a pain,” Newman said. “It wasn’t like an actual classroom, where she could get some one-on-one attention if she needed it.”

All of Dallas County’s public school students will be back in class at the end of this week and school systems are planning on tracking COVID-19 cases via online dashboards. The Texas Education Agency is also collecting case counts from the state’s school districts and releasing data weekly.

After two weeks of students being on campus at less than 50 schools, Dallas ISD has reported 199 total COVID-19 cases from students or staff. The majority of the cases are among campus and central office staff. Just 32 of the 199 confirmed cases are students. Roughly 18,000 students returned to campus by last Friday.

Since July 1, Garland ISD reported 76 active lab-confirmed cases among staff and 437 among students. The district employs more than 7,300 staff members and has a student enrollment of nearly 54,000.

Highland Park

Emotional debates over masking have gripped communities even where school districts have already decided to ditch the face covering requirements.

A Highland Park ISD board meeting Monday night at times felt more like a rowdy game at the stadium next door with crowd members cheering those they agreed with and jeering their opponents.

After a high school student spoke about his concerns of returning to school without required masking, some parents yelled “homeschool” while another shouted “good job sheep!”

A group of parents and physicians pleaded with the board Monday evening to reinstate the mandate, citing concerns over the dwindling supply of ICU beds in nearby hospitals.

“If our children were to get sick … there may not be sufficient medical treatment for them,” said Dr. Zachary Dreyfuss, a pulmonary and critical care physician with a kindergartner at one of HPISD’s elementaries.

Meanwhile, a large group of parents opposed to masking begged the board to stand strong against the mask mandate.

“I saw my doctor here tonight, and he’s fired,” one woman, who declined to give her name, yelled to cheers in the crowd.

The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.

The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from The Beck Group, Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, The Meadows Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University and Todd A. Williams Family Foundation. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.

talia.richman@dallasnews.com,

emily.donaldson@dallasnews.com, corbettsmith@dallasnews.com

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