David Swarbrick
Jul 26, 20201 min
The process of defining what campus life will look like this fall starts with the most general information and moves toward the specific. As we do so it is important that every campus is acting in a manner that is legal. To help clarify our thinking I would like to reference the statement released by Ken Paxton, Texas’s Attorney General On July 17 of this year. Here is a link to a discussion of his statement. If you scroll to the bottom of the discussion you can find a link to his statement in it’s entirety.
https://txvalues.org/2020/07/17/texas-ag-overrides-local-school-order/
Worth noting are 2 specific statements.
page 2: “Under the governor’s orders, local governments are prohibited from closing religious institutions....local governments are similarly prohibited from issuing blanket orders closing religious private schools.”
page 4: “Thus, as protected by the First Amendment and Texas law, religious private schools may continue to determine when it is safe for their communities to resume in-person instruction free from any government mandate or interference.”
Based on this statement, One Day Academy and our regional staff are free to work with church staff at each campus to come up with a plan for that specific campus, free from concern about specific local decisions regarding when in-person instruction may begin.
Next I will look at the medical field, looking for their input regarding how and when in-person instruction should begin.