San Antonio Standard

Northside Independent School District (ISD) plans to comply with the recent executive order issued by Gov. Greg Abbott in March that prohibits government entities and public schools from mandating masks. 

Northside ISD Executive Director of Communications Barry Perez said the school will still encourage mask-wearing during the summer program, though it will not be enforced for any student, teacher, staff or visitor as the order mandates. 

"We will, of course, adhere to the executive order, however will still strongly encourage the use of face masks in our summer programming," Perez told the San Antonio Standard. 

Northside ISD Executive Director of Communications Barry Perez | Twitter

Perez said that Northside ISD is still working on, and finalizing what future protocols for the summer session and new school year will look like for the district. 

"We are working to finalize our protocols for both summer school and the new school year and hope to share this information out soon," Perez said, though did not specify where future information will be released.

A press release from the governor's office said that for public schools, the mask mandate lifting will begin June 4, which most schools will have already ended their school year. The mandate does include school administration office buildings.

"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," Gov. Abbott said in the release. "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."

Effective by the end of the day on June 4, the Texas Education Agency will have to amend its guidelines mandating face-covering that will no longer be required of parents, students, teachers, and visitors. 

The multiple different mandates and executive orders issued since July 2020 have caused confusion for many government entities. In March, Abbott lifted the statewide mask mandate and nominally prevented local governments from instituting their own mandates. However, several municipalities ignored him and stuck by their mandates.

In July of 2020, Abbott then instituted a bonafide mask mandate, requiring virtually all Texans to wear a mask in public spaces. In his first order, Abbott prohibited counties from mandating masks, but the order very "round-a-about" and hinted at the loopholes which allowed for counties to skirt his order while continuing to mandate masks, Texas Monthly reported. Ultimately, it allowed counties to force businesses to mandate masks.

Abbott's actions have often been contrasted with those of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who rescinded the most meaningful COVID-19 restrictions last fall. DeSantis did, however, allow localities to mandate masks, but neutered any ability they had to enforce any orders, NPR reported.

DeSantis did recently issue a new order that bans local governments from mandating masks two weeks before Abbott's order, but Florida did not apply this order to public schools. This is one major contract to Abbott's order, the Tampa Bay reported. 

ABC 13 recently reported that Texas has had zero COVID-19 deaths for the first time in 14 months.