Gov. Greg Abbott’s political aspirations appear to outweigh his sense of duty to protect Texas’ children.
We need to look no further than the Republican politician’s order banning mask mandates by any school district, government body or taxpayer-funded public or private entity for evidence of his blatant misplacement of his political agenda above the wellbeing of Texans.
Such a rejection of public health officials’ best efforts to combat the ongoing surge of COVID-19 infections — a wave that now threatens to overrun hospitals in all corners of the Lone Star state — is a wholesale dereliction of his duty to protect Texans, especially children.
Instead of stepping into the political wind to shield our children, Abbott has thrust students into the position of cannon fodder in his fight for political profile.
It’s a repugnant move considering the governor was one of the first Texans to receive a vaccine to protect against the pandemic virus. Think about that for a moment, a guy who has enjoyed relative protection from serious illness from the virus since December thanks to his position of privilege has set policy that rejects masks for our students. Our children.
That political game is playing out as children younger than 12 are the one group not yet under the vaccine umbrella in the midst of a COVID-19 hurricane. They also comprise more than half of students enrolled in Texas schools.
Couple that with state policies that installed disincentives for remote learning and diluted requirements for tracking outbreaks in schools and we have a recipe for disaster.
The governor’s stubborn rejection of common sense as children flood back into classrooms for a new school year plays out as health experts track alarming increases in the number of young people falling ill. The American Academy of Pediatrics logged more than 93,000 cases of COVID-19 in children during the week that ended Aug. 5. That’s 15 percent of all new diagnoses of the disease that week nationwide, and a steep rise in children becoming ill.
That unneeded, misguided obstacle Abbott created already faces court challenges by a number of the state’s largest school districts, but what happens to the smaller, rural ones, the ones without cash reserves to fund lawsuits?
Well, we have heard from them, and they say they’re hogtied.
“I think masks are critical for our school district, but the governor has kind of forced our hand,” said JT Lagnley, a Huntsville ISD trustee. “For the safety of the people in this school district we need to highly recommend that everyone wears a mask.”
Children may be less susceptible to serious illness or hospitalization than older adults, but both public health experts and school leaders astutely point out that those young people will carry the infection home to parents, grandparents and other medically vulnerable family members.
So, instead of heeding the guidance of experts, science or even his own privileged experience, the governor has forced school leaders who want to do what’s best for the children they serve to sue his administration for the right to protect students without the threat of retaliation from state bureaucrats.
We sure think our children’s health should take priority over politics, we just hope Abbott begins to feel the same before it’s too late.
Weatherford Democrat
