UPDATE: Grand Prairie Independent School district officials have also announced that masks are now required to enter all GPISD buildings.
ORIGINAL POST: Fort Worth Independent School District has joined the growing list of districts that will require students and teachers to wear masks while on campus in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19, Superintendent Kent Scribner announced during a special board meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 10, as reported by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
This puts FWISD in line with Dallas and Austin school districts in defying Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order, issued in May, prohibiting such mask mandates. Houston ISD board members are set to discuss taking similar action this week.
Scribner said the mask mandate will apply immediately indoors and on school buses when classes begin next Monday. He said school officials will monitor constantly-changing COVID-19 data and adjust the safety protocols as necessary.
The decision comes after parents and medical professionals asked the district for a mask mandate during public comments earlier in the day, the Star-Telegram notes, and as COVID-19 cases continue to surge again across the country. Texas, alongside Florida, remain hot spots in this new wave of infections. The daily average of cases in Texas stands at 12,426, or 43 cases per every 1,000 residents, according to data compiled by the New York Times. That is up 91 percent in the last 14 days.
According to the Star-Telegram, Tarrant County is experiencing its highest weekly COVID case counts since mid-February. The majority of these new cases are happening in unvaccinated people, and at present, vaccines have been authorized only for people age 12 and older in the U.S.
