Students are being encouraged to wear masks to school when they arrive back on campus for the start of the 2021-22 school year. An order mandating masks issued by the county at 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug.15, was rescinded three hours later following a Texas Supreme Court ruling. Courtesy photo
Nueces County, Corpus Christi health authority drop mask mandate
By Alecia Ormsby
The legal battle over masks/no masks has made its way to Corpus Christi with the county, city, and school districts striving to make sense of what they can legally do to protect against the COVID-19 virus. Mask mandates have been ordered and taken away, and the city council held a special meeting and executive session to discuss the matter on Monday.
Bottom line — after all the back and forth — is that as of Monday afternoon, Aug. 16, students heading back to school this week are strongly encouraged to wear masks, but masks will not be mandated. The same for county government offices.
Here’s what happened.
On Sunday, Aug. 15, the Texas Supreme Court temporarily blocked Dallas and Bexar counties from implementing mask mandates. Travis and Nueces counties had also issued mandates for government offices and schools, but were not party to the case before the court and are continuing with their mandates. The Dallas superintendent said he would continue to require masks in schools as the Texas Supreme Court schedules hearings on the matter.
Around 7 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 15, the Nueces County Health Authority issued a health directive mandating masks.
“Effective immediately all public schools in Nueces County that offer in-class instruction and/or other indoor activities to students in all grades from pre-kindergarten through grade twelve (12) shall REQUIRE universal indoor face masks in line with the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations for all students, staff, teachers, and visitors, regardless of vaccination status,” the directive read.
At 10 p.m. the same evening, Nueces County Judge Barbara Canales rescinded that directive, saying the county would be following the Texas Supreme Court ruling issued earlier that day.
“This Texas Supreme Court ruling puts everything on hold,” Nueces County Judge Canales said in her statement. “We will respect the Supreme Court ruling and the Local Health Authority's Public Health Order will not be enforced at this time. We will wait for the Texas Supreme Court to make a final ruling.”
Corpus Christi Mayor Paulette M. Guajardo and City Manager Peter Zanoni called a special session for Monday morning, Aug. 16, to address the Nueces County mask mandate. After hearing public comments, the council went into executive session.
After coming back into regular session, City Attorney Miles Risley pointed out that the Health Authority issued the order, but the city did not sign it.
“The City Council and City Manager did not receive, and were not given an opportunity to give input into this order prior to its issuance,” Risley said at the close of the two-hour special meeting. “We still have not received a signed order.”
Two local school districts also backed off mandating masks on campuses. The Corpus Christi and Robstown independent school districts were ready to mandate masks due to recent increases in COVID-19 cases in the district. By Monday morning, Aug. 16, both decided to return to highly encouraging masks on all campuses, but not mandating.
Canales urged students, teachers, and staff to be vigilant.
“Public Health and I are asking students to be smart — practice social distancing where possible, wash your hands, and please voluntarily wear your masks while in close quarters and indoors with others,” Canales said.. “We have beat COVID-19 once. Let’s work together to beat the Delta variant.”
