Brownsville Independent School District now has a temporary restraining order that will allow classes to start next week with a district mask mandate.
On Friday, the Brownsville Independent School District announced the districts’ lawsuit filed in Travis County was granted a temporary restraining order against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order prohibiting the adoption of mask mandates in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“After almost two hours of argument, Judge Jan Soifer granted a temporary restraining order against Gov. Abbott’s executive order barring school districts from adopting mask mandates,” said Dr. René Gutiérrez, Superintendent of Schools of Brownsville Independent School District.
The Court will hear further arguments at a date to be determined next week, the superintendent said.
BISD Board of Trustees’ legal counsel is next seeking a permanant halt to the executive order.
“Our litigation team will urge the court to adopt a permanent injunction against any enforcement of Gov. Abbott’s executive order,” said Kevin O’Hanlon, Board of Trustees Legal Counsel of Brownsville Independent School District. “We look forward to continuing to defend school boards’ right to adopt reasonable safety measures to protect the health and safety of their students, staff, and communities.”
By a unanimous vote Thursday afternoon, the Brownsville Independent School District Board of Trustees authorized the lawsuit against Abbott.
District officials said they wanted to be able to implement a mask mandate in the best interests of its students, staff and employees.
The board also authorized a resolution stating the necessity that the school board be able to make decisions locally regarding the health and safety of those same students, staff and employees.
Abbott earlier issued an executive order prohibiting school boards and other governments from instituting mask mandates. School boards across the state in recent days have been issuing mandates in defiance of the governor.
The vote followed a presentation by risk management director Dustin Garza, who runs BISD’s health plan, and health services director Alonso Guerrero that COVID-19 infections in BISD, Brownsville and Cameron County have run rampant in recent weeks as the delta variant spreads across the Rio Grande Valley.
“We’re getting near the point we were at when the pandemic reached its peak in December,” hospitals are almost at capacity, and the highest number of infections is among individuals under 20 years old, Garza said. “This data doesn’t lie.”
When Superintendent Rene Gutierrez asked about a recent survey of BISD parents, Garza said just under 97 percent of parents agreed that a mask mandate is the safest way to slow the spread of COVID-19 because children under 12 are still ineligible to receive the vaccine against the virus.
A vaccine clinic is scheduled from 3-7 p.m. Monday at all BISD middle schools during meet-the-teacher events there, officials said.
