Parents in a Travis County, Texas school district assaulted a teacher by ripping off her face mask and demanded another teacher remove hers, according to the school district’s superintendent.
Tom Leonard, the district superintendent for Eanes Independent School District wrote in an email: “A parent physically assaulted a teacher by ripping a mask off her face, others yelling at a teacher to take off her mask because they could not understand what the teacher was saying while her face was covered.”
“This type of behavior will not be tolerated in Eanes ISD. Our staff are on the front lines of this pandemic; let’s give them some space and grace. Please, I am asking everyone to be kind. … Do not fight mask wars in our schools” Leonard added, according to USA Today.
No charges were filed in the altercation.
Travis County mandates masks in all schools and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all students in kindergarten through 12th grade wear masks. However, Texas governor Greg Abbott signed an executive order banning mandates.
Eanes school district kept it safe and sided with Gov. Greg Abbott’s mask mandate ban. The school district said they would not mandate mask, but encourage students and staff to wear them.
Travis county’s order allows districts some discretion as to how mask mandates should work and “when it is not appropriate to require students, staff and visitors to wear a face covering,” USA Today noted.
This is not the first time a parent attacked school officials over mask rules. A California father reportedly hit a teacher in the face over a mask dispute on the first day of school.
