A parent ripped a mask off a teacher's face and demanded another educator remove theirs as well during an argument about face coverings at an Austin district school.
Eanes Independent School District condemned the attack in a statement on Tuesday.
The district has 7,700 students in six elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school.
Superintendent Tom Leonard said in a statement: 'A parent physically assaulted a teacher by ripping a mask off her face, others yelling at a teacher to take off her mask because they could not understand what the teacher was saying while her face was covered.'
Leonard said the behavior would 'not be tolerated', and urged Texas parents to provide the teachers with 'space and grace' and 'not fight mask wars in our schools.'
But said, 'If adults choose to disagree and fight among themselves (as my mother often advised my brother and me when we fought) please take it outside, off our campuses and out of our schools.'
Eanes ISD Superintendent Tom Leonard released a statement on Tuesday confirming the inappropriate behavior
Leonard did not disclose the condition of the teacher who was attacked or whether further action will be taken against the unnamed parent.
But the school district confirmed that no charges were filed with police in the altercation, according to Austin American-Statesman.
The argument came after Governor Greg Abbott signed an executive order last month banning mask and Covid-19 vaccination mandates, declaring that it would promote 'individual right and responsibility' in the Lone Star State.
But he has faced resistance from municipalities and some school districts in the state.
Travis County - which covers the city of Austin and includes Eanes ISD - currently mandates masks in schools, overruling the governor's order.
Leonard told parents: 'Unless the Texas Supreme Court eventually rules this order is superseded by an Executive Order from the Governor, the Travis County Order presently mandates masks in all schools in Travis County.'
The Travis County Order states that 'Compliance with this Order is reliant on self-regulation,' and that 'The Travis County Order allows school personnel to '...determine when it is not appropriate to require students, staff, and visitors to wear a face covering.'
Parents have complained about mask mandates at some schools (FILE IMAGE)
The superintendent claimed that regardless of what the legal system decides, the Eanes ISD will implement the regulations suggested by the CDC 'for the good of the community.'
He stated that behavior such as that of the parent who physically assaulted the teacher will not be tolerated.
He pointed to Silvia Boorstein's- a grandmother, author, and psychotherapist- comment, 'Your children really aren't listening to what you say. They're actually just watching what you do.'
Noting the difficult situation that education staff are in Leonard defended his team saying 'Our staff are on the front lines of this pandemic; let's give them some space and grace. Please, I am asking everyone to be kind.'
Reiterating that the Travis County Order enforcement relies on self-accountability, he declared that 'in Eanes ISD we will highly encourage masks, desire masks and per the Travis County Order, we will mandate masks; however that same County Order states in essence, that we have no legal methods to enforce the wearing of masks.
'We will not make our staff the 'mask police' with no authority to enforce the rule.'
But he reminded parents that 'children and adults in our schools are doing what they believe is best for themselves and our community' and that 'our hospitals are full at the moment, our medical personnel are under extreme pressure. We are doing our part to help.'
Eanes ISD is set to begin their first day of school this Wednesday, August 18.
Harris County has also overruled the Republican governor's ban on mask mandates, and says students in their schools will have to wear a mask.
Harris County includes the Houston Independent School District - the state's largest district - which has 276 schools and 196,943 students.
The attack in the Eanes ISD comes amid several other similar cases as schools across the country begin a new year amid the pandemic.
Last week, a California dad was been banned from his daughter's elementary school after allegedly punching a male teacher in the face during an argument over the mask mandate on the first day of school on Wednesday.
The teacher was left with lacerations to his face and sent to the emergency room after defending the principal from the 'serious physical altercation' at Sutter Creek Elementary School, 30 miles south east of Sacramento.
The father - who has not been named by officials - had been an hour late to pick up his daughter, Amador County Unified School District Superintendent Torie Gibson told BuzzFeed.
But he became angry after seeing the child and the school's principal wearing masks as they came out of the school building. The school is following California's mask mandate in schools, which was announced in July.
Returning to the school later, the father allegedly began verbally attacking principal, claiming that the 'kids are treated like animals.'
Police arrived to Sutter Creek Elementary on Wednesday after the parent left the scene and are now investigating the situation. The teacher returned to work the next day
Amador County Unified School District Superintendent Torie Gibson (pictured) said the teacher was left with 'lacerations on his face, some bruising on his face, and a pretty good knot on the back of his head'
'The dad went totally crazy,' Gibson said.
A male teacher - who has also not been named - then stepped in to protect the school's female principal, and the father is alleged to have got physical, punching the teacher in the face.
'The teacher was bleeding,' Gibson told KCRA 3. 'He had some lacerations on his face, some bruising on his face, and a pretty good knot on the back of his head.'
The teacher was treated at an emergency room for injuries and released late Wednesday night.
Most parents support mask mandates in schools but don't believe children should be required to get COVID-19 shots, a new poll finds. The survey, conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), that six in 10 parents agree that unvaccinated students and teacher s should wear face coverings in the classroom.
However, roughly the same share of mothers and fathers say they don't think school administrators should mandate vaccines. It come as the country's largest teacher's union, the National Education Association, says it supports vaccine requirements for educators.
A new poll finds 63% of parents of children believe unvaccinated students and staff should be required to wear mask while 36% oppose. But 58% of mothers and fathers of 12-to-17-year-olds don't want schools to require children to get vaccinated while 42% support it
For the report, the team surveyed 1,259 parents and guardians of children under age 18 between July 15 and August 2. They found that 63 percent of parents of children between ages five and 17 believe unvaccinated students and staff should be required to wear mask. The remaining 36 percent said they did not think face coverings should be mandated.
There were large racial and ethnic disparities between parents' thoughts on masks. About 83 of black parents and 76 percent of Hispanic parents support mask requirements compared to 54 percent of white parents. Parents were also split along party-lines with 88 percent of Democrats saying their child's school should require masks and 69 percent of Republicans saying school should not.
However, when it came to vaccine requirements, a majority of parents said they do not support vaccine mandates.
The survey found that 58 percent of mothers and fathers of 12-to-17-year-olds, who are eligible to get vaccinated, don't want schools to require children to get vaccinated while 42 percent support it.
Parents of teenagers who have already gotten the vaccine were more likely to be in favor of COVID-19 vaccine requirements.
'Despite controversy around the country about masks in schools, most parents want their school to require masks of unvaccinated students and staff,' KFF President and CEO Drew Altman said in a news release. 'At the same time, most parents don't want their schools to require their kids get a COVID-19 vaccine despite their effectiveness in combatting COVID-19.'
There were also racial and political divides on the subject of Covid vaccine mandates. Approximately two-thirds of Democratic parents support vaccine mandates and three-quarters of Republican parents opposing mandates. What's more, the majority of white and black parents oppose schools requiring vaccines while Hispanic parents were split about 50/50.
Three-quarters, or 75 percent, of parents of vaccinated children said they believe schools should mandate vaccines. Meanwhile, 83 percent of parents of unvaccinated children oppose such requirements.
It comes as the largest teachers' union in the U.S. said it supports policies requiring teachers to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or to get tested regularly.
'It is clear that the vaccination of those eligible is one of the most effective ways to keep schools safe,' said Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, in a statement.
Pringle's statement comes two days after Randi Weingarten, the leader of the second-largest union, American Federation of Teachers, said she supported vaccine mandates.
'We believe that such vaccine requirements and accommodations are an appropriate, responsible, and necessary step,'. Pringle said. About 90 percent of teachers who belong to the National Education Association are fully vaccinated.
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