Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox has issued an injunction on Friday temporarily blocking an Arkansas law that prohibits mask mandates from being enforced in schools and government agencies statewide.
Arkansas, alongside other states such as Texas and Florida, has decided to prohibit mask mandates in schools, considering them unfair to impose upon school-aged children. The state's special session, called to revisit the prohibition for schools because of the state's COVID-19 surge, has now ended with the ban left in place.
According to local outlet 5 News, Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson had been asking the state legislature to consider some exemptions to the measure as COVID-19 cases and rates of hospitalization are rising in the state of Arkansas.
On Thursday, the Arkansas State House heard from a procession of health experts, parents, educators, and concerned citizens on both sides of the debate over mask mandates in Arkansas schools. Hutchinson mentioned that, since children under the age 12 are not allowed to take a COVID-19 jab yet, they should be "protected" by some sort of mask mandate in order to go back to in-person schooling.
However, the state legislature was not collaborative, and the special session called by Hutchinson for that purpose wound up being ended with the bill intact on Friday morning. Hutchinson has previously been in the news for vetoing a bill that would have banned gender transition surgery for minors in Arkansas.
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