PARIS, Texas — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has scored a victory in his legal battle against school districts with mask mandates in place.
In August, Paris ISD amended its dress code to mandate mask usage, presumably as a means of getting around Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order banning such mandates.
According to a new release from Paxton’s office, a Lamar County district court Tuesday issued a temporary restraining order against the district.
“The law is clear, and this superintendent knows this, yet he has no issue continuing to waste precious state resources on impossible lawsuits instead of providing for his students,” Paxton wrote in a news release announcing the legal victory. “This temporary restraining order is just the first step in restoring order to our great state and ending this disruption from rogue local officials.”
“The Texas Governor does not have the authority to usurp the Board of Trustees’ exclusive power and duty to govern and oversee the management of the public schools in the district,” Paris ISD said in an August statement concerning the amended dress code.
Paris, Texas, is located in the northeast part of the state, about 98 miles northeast of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. As of the 2010 census the city had a population of 25,171.
“The Board of Trustees is concerned about the health and safety of its students and employees. The Board believes the dress code can be used to mitigate communicable health issues, and therefore has amended the PISD dress code to protect our students and employees,” the statement from Paris ISD reads.
A little less than half of Texas’ population is vaccinated, but despite the wide availability of vaccines they have not been approved for children under 12 years old.
Paris ISD, the largest school district in Lamar Country, has enrollment of nearly 3,900 students.
The full August statement made by Paris ISD can be found here.