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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – An Arkansas judge on Friday temporarily barred the state from enforcing its ban on mask warrants after lawmakers left the ban in place despite a growing number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox has issued a preliminary injunction against the law Governor Asa Hutchinson signed in April banning mask requirements by government entities. The ban was being challenged by two lawsuits, including one in a school district in eastern Arkansas where more than 900 staff and students are in quarantine due to a coronavirus outbreak.
Fox spoke against the measure on several grounds, including the argument that it discriminated between public and private schools.
The law “cannot be enforced in any form, mode or form” pending further legal action, Fox said.
Fox delivered the ruling hours after lawmakers adjourned a special session Hutchinson called to consider reversing the ban for some schools.
Hutchinson had said the change was necessary to protect children under 12 who cannot get vaccinated as virus cases and hospitalizations skyrocket in the state.
A House panel Thursday rejected two measures that would have allowed some school districts to impose mask requirements.
There had been growing calls to lift the ban before school started across the state later this month. The Marion School District, one of the districts challenging the warrant ban, said on Friday that 949 staff and students had to be quarantined since classes began last week due to a coronavirus outbreak . The district said 54 students and 11 staff members had tested positive for COVID-19.
“I think we are going to really regret not taking action,” said Democratic Senator Keith Ingram, House Minority Leader. “I just hope the consequences will not be fatal for the children, staff or teachers in this condition.”
Pediatricians and health officials have said masks in schools are needed to protect children, as the delta variant and Arkansas’ low vaccination rate fuel the state’s spiral of cases. The state on Monday reported its largest one-day increase in hospitalizations for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and the Department of Health said on Thursday that only 36 intensive care unit beds were available in the state.
But Hutchinson faced strong opposition from fellow Republicans, who had been inundated with calls and messages from opponents of masks in schools.
Opponents of the lifting of the ban who testified before the legislature have repeatedly cited false and discredited claims about the virus, including a woman who falsely suggested that COVID-19 does not exist.
“That’s what’s frustrating is that we don’t make decisions about data, data being respected,” said Democratic Representative Denise Garner, who co-sponsored one of the proposals to lift the ban. .
Hutchinson said this week he regretted signing the mask mandate ban, telling reporters that “in hindsight, I wish it hadn’t become law.” Hutchinson noted that he did so when the state’s cases were far fewer and the legislature could easily have ignored him had he vetoed the measure.
The Republican sponsor of the term ban said he believes the state should focus on other ways to tackle epidemics in schools, such as time off for teachers who must self-quarantine.
“What I don’t want is that false sense of security that masks seem to provide because it’s an easy political tool,” Republican Senator Trent Garner said. “Let’s find the real solutions when this happens in our schools, and I think we are woefully inadequate in that regard. “
On Friday, the House and Senate gave final approval to the only other item on the session’s agenda, legislation aimed at preventing the state from resuming additional unemployment insurance payments to 69,000 people in the ‘State.
A state judge last week ordered Arkansas to resume payment, finding that Hutchinson did not appear to have the power to cut payments. Hutchinson was one of more than two dozen GOP governors who ended their states’ participation in federally-funded payments, which were due to run until early September.
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This story has been corrected to show the ruling was made on Friday
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