The Arkansas Supreme Court denied the state’s request on Thursday, Sept. 30, to enforce its ban on mask mandates, allowing a judge’s preliminary injunction in a circuit court case to remain in place until the scheduled November trial.
University of Central Arkansas President Houston Davis said, “We are aware of the court’s ruling, and we are continuing to monitor the case.”
Governor Asa Hutchinson signed the state senate bill Act 1002 in April, and the law went into effect July 28. Sen. Trent Garner R-El Dorado and Rep. Joshua Paul Bryant R-Rogers sponsored the bill.
Act 1002 sought to ban school districts, universities and colleges, and local and state government agencies from enforcing mask mandates.
In August, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox ruled Act 1002 unconstitutional, issuing a preliminary injunction against the law after school districts Little Rock and Marion, parents, and Pulaski County officials filed a lawsuit challenging the ban. The injunction allows school districts and government agencies to make independent decisions on mask mandates.
Following Judge Fox’s injunction, Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge released the following statement in a news release on arkansasag.gov: “I will appeal the decision of Judge Fox, which blocked Act 1002 from going into effect. For nearly seven years, I have always exercised my constitutional duty to represent the State of Arkansas and will continue to wholeheartedly defend state laws to protect Arkansans of all ages.”
In early August, the governor said he regretted pushing Act 1002 into law after he reinstated a statewide public health emergency due to the rising cases of the COVID-19 Delta variant.
Before the start of the 2021-22 academic year, UCA devised a color-coded system that provides students, faculty and staff with a weekly update on Sundays on the campus’s status on mask requirements. The three colors are red, yellow and green. Red indicates masks are required in all indoor spaces on campus. Yellow indicates masks are encouraged in all indoor spaces on campus. Green indicates the campus will follow normal business and operational patterns.
“From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, UCA has followed guidance primarily from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Arkansas Department of Health, and our medical director, Dr. Randy Pastor. Following this same guidance, the weekly status system is based on the CDC’s Level of Transmission status, which is a scale of low, moderate, substantial and high. The system alerts campus of our community transmission status and what actions individuals on campus should take regarding masking,” Davis said.
When asked about the mask mandate, senior Anthony Reiter said, “I personally think that mask mandates do not add much benefit to the COVID situations at schools, but that it is a result of the system in place that the decisions are made this way. I think it’s better for the schools not to be able to make their students mask up as students will always have that right. I do not want judges’ powers to change as it would be really bad for them not to have the ability to make a decision that I thought was better.”
Freshman Erin Smith said, “I believe that masks should absolutely be mandatory in class. I got
COVID the second week of school. I got it from an ex-roommate. UCA will have a better chance of keeping in-person classes and better grades with the mask mandate in place.”
According to a database kept and updated by the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, 157 school districts and charter schools have partial or full-mask requirements, with 104 having no mask requirement. In addition, the ACHI reported on Thursday, Oct. 7, that forty Arkansas public school districts have COVID-19 infection rates of 50 or more new known infections per 10,000 district residents over a 14-day period, down from 77 last week.
The UCA Student Health Center continues to offer vaccines for students, faculty, and staff.
“Although the number of vaccinations given in the Student Health Center has decreased from a high of around 200 per week at the beginning of the semester, they’re still averaging around 100 shots per week. The slow decline was expected as more students get vaccinated,” Dr. Randy Pastor said.
Judge Fox will preside over the November trial, set to begin Thanksgiving week.