Photo: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune

A federal judge overturns Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban on Coronavirus mask mandates in Texas schools.

Judge Lee Yeakel, of the US District Court for western Texas, ruled that the ban violates the rights of students with disabilities because it excludes them “from participating in and denies them the benefits of public schools’ programs, services, and activities to which they are entitled”. School districts can now issue rules for face coverings for more than 5 million students.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of several families of students with disabilities and of the organization Disability Rights Texas.

See also Texas Governor Abbott Bars Coronavirus Vaccine Mandates

Yeakel found that Abbott’s executive order violates the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act because it puts children with disabilities at risk. It prohibits Attorney General Ken Paxton from enforcing the order. The judge summarized:

The spread of COVID-19 poses 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.

Trying to block or limit Coronavirus containment measures, Republican and Texas governors have banned the mask requirements. In late October, the Florida Board of Education, implementing Gov. Ron DeSantis’s command, stripped funding from eight school districts over their mask mandates to curb Coronavirus.

Attorney General Paxton sent letters to superintendents of Texas school districts threatening them with “legal action by his office to enforce the governor’s order and protect the rule of law”.

The Justice Department supported the lawsuit against Texas officials in September, stating that “even if their local school districts offered them the option of virtual learning”, the ban still violated the rights of students with disabilities.