Texas Attorney General announces lawsuits against school districts

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Friday he is suing six school districts for defying Governor Abbott’s executive order banning mask mandates.

Richardson, Round Rock, Galveston, Elgin, Spring and Sherman ISDs are the six school districts being sued by the Attorney General’s office, according to a news release.

Several other school districts are listed as being in defiance of Executive Order GA-38, including Plainview ISD. Attorney General Paxton said these school districts will also be sued if they continue to defy Governor Abbott’s executive order.

“If districts choose to spend their money on legal fees, they must do so knowing that my office is ready and willing to litigate these cases,” Paxton said in a news release. “I have full confidence that the courts will side with the law – not acts of political defiance.”

Executive Order GA-38 prohibits school districts from requiring students, teachers or staff to wear masks or face coverings, regardless of local guidance.

Paxton’s announcement comes just two weeks after he admitted in a court filing in Harris County that the Office of the Attorney General cannot enforce GA-38, according to the Harris County Attorney. In court filings against several counties, Paxton argued “local district attorneys [would] be the ones enforcing GA-38.”

The Texas Supreme Court paved the way for the mask mandate ban to continue, at least temporarily, by issuing a stay on an injunction against Governor Abbott in Bexar County in late August.