Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed an executive order this week banning city and county governments and public school districts from imposing mandatory mask mandates beginning June 5.
Any official or administration imposing such mandates will be subject to a $1,000 fine, according to the order the governor signed Tuesday.
Abbott issued the decree just two days after he announced Texas recorded zero COVID-related deaths over the preceding 24-hour period for the first time since the pandemic began last spring.
“The Lone Star State continues to defeat COVID-19 through the use of widely available vaccines, antibody therapeutic drugs, and safe practices utilized by Texans in our communities,” he said in a statement. “Texans, not government, should decide their best health practices, which is why masks will not be mandated by public school districts or government entities. We can continue to mitigate COVID-19 while defending Texans’ liberty to choose whether or not they mask up.”
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The conservative governor faced a lot of backlash from the left in early March, when he lifted the majority of the COVID-related restrictions.
At the time, President Joe Biden condemned the idea of reopening or removing any restrictions on Texans as “Neanderthal thinking.” He described it as a “big mistake,” saying it is “critical, critical, critical, critical” to keep mask mandates and social distancing requirements in place.
Failed Senate and Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke also lampooned Abbott, whom he accused of “sacrific[ing] the lives of our fellow Texans … for political gain.” He also called the GOP the “cult of death” and said true governor “is killing the people of Texas.”
Abbott’s decision to lift the state’s mask mandates for children in public schools comes the same week a 10-year-old boy from Martin County, Florida, went viral for making the case for why kids shouldn’t be forced to wear masks.
He made his case during an emergency school board meeting last week.
“Wearing the masks all day makes me really tired,” the fourth grader said. “Sometimes, I miss school and have to lay down in the dark til they’re gone,” he added, noting masks can make him really hot and cause anxiety.
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The young boy also called out what he sees as “hypocrisy” from teachers who often pull their masks down to yell at him and his classmates when they’re not wearing their masks properly.
“One teacher walks around with a clipboard full of referrals for any student whose mask isn’t on properly,” he said. “It makes me feel scared.”
In Fremont County, Colorado, a school bus driver was just fired after he was caught on video slapping a child in the face because she pulled her mask down under her nose because it was making her sick.