Posted on 11/10/2021 5:37:43 PM PST by BlackFemaleArmyColonel
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order prohibiting mask mandates in schools violates the Americans with Disabilities Act — freeing local officials to again create their own rules.
The order comes after a months long legal dispute between parents, a disability rights organization and Texas officials over whether the state was violating the 1990 law, known as the ADA, by not allowing school districts to require masks. U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel barred Attorney General Ken Paxton from enforcing Abbott’s order.
“The spread of COVID-19 poses an even greater risk for children with special health needs,” Yeakel said. “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.”
The judge said the governor’s order impedes children with disabilities from the benefits of public schools’ programs, services and activities to which they are entitled.
The advocacy group, Disability Rights Texas, filed the federal lawsuit on behalf of several Texan families in late August against Abbott, Paxton and Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath. It states that the governor’s order and the TEA’s enforcement of it deny children with disabilities access to public education as they are at high risk of illness and death from the virus.
(Excerpt) Read more at star-telegram.com ...
Stay away from Marxist indoctrination centers, where mediocrity and self-worship are sown with a vengeance.
If your School mandats masks in Texas, vote with your feet and move to a district that doesn’t.
Same thing just happened in Pennsylvania.
It has gotten to the place where the lower courts can no longer decide anything, but every case must go to the Supreme Court now.
A Shrub appointee...
Yeakel, Earl Leroy III
Born 1945 in Oklahoma City, OK
Federal Judicial Service:
Judge, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas
Nominated by George W. Bush on May 1, 2003, to a seat vacated by James R. Nowlin. Confirmed by the Senate on July 28, 2003, and received commission on July 29, 2003.
Education:
University of Texas, B.A., 1966
University of Texas School of Law, J.D., 1969
University of Virginia School of Law, LL.M., 2001
Professional Career:
U.S. Marine Corps, 1967-1970
Private practice, Austin, Texas, 1969-1998
Justice, Third Court of Appeals of Texas, 1998-2003; chief justice, 1998
And useless masks pose even graver dangers for an even larger segment of children with disabilities such as asthma, children for whom mask requirements would harm.
[Four letter words for the judge redacted,]
Ironic as a PA judges threw out the governor’s mask mandate in that state earlier today: https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4011573/posts
Does this only apply to kids with disabilities.
AVerage kids don’t have the PRESSING NEED that disabled kids have. And vaccines may make them sick.
Ten bucks says that it’s a Rat Party appointee...which means there’s no reason to sake your head.
Unless there was a ruling the past hour, i believe the exact opposite happened in Pennsylvania: https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4011573/posts
Federal Judge needs to be educated....
“The spread of COVID-19 poses an even greater risk for children with special health needs,” Yeakel said. “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.”
So the judge’s ruling is not based on law rather his personal medical opinion.
Thank you, President Bush the Elder.
ML/NJ
The ADA and ... COVID masks?
What’s the connection? If you can’t have everyone around you wearing a mask then you are disabled?
Even if a mandate is prohibited, each person can still choose to wear a mask if they like.
This is a stretch even for the federales.
GWB
They should bring the scienctific studies showing masks are nearly worthless.
This is very bad news for those of us fighting for mask optional K-12 schools and colleges. This decision is like CA and public schools and peanut butter—if even one child is allergic to peanut butter, then it must be completely banned and no one can eat peanut butter in school. Now, it is breathing freely and smiling that must be banned.
If this kind of decision holds, I see no way out of mask mandates indefinitely in schools. One parent will complain about her child with comorbidities who “might” get covid—for years to come—and the masks will stay on.
Very depressing. What about those children who can’t learn English or a foreign language in school due to the masks? The speech delays? The depression, tooth decay, acne? The inability to flirt and smile and talk in high school?
Awful decision.
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