Branches of the University of Wisconsin and school districts in Arizona and Florida are ordering students and staff to wear masks indoors in spite of statewide regulations and laws that prohibit them from doing so, as the Delta variant’s rapid spread sparks new showdowns over mask orders between state and local governments nationwide.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison implemented an indoor mask mandate for students and staff Tuesday, after the university’s Milwaukee campus imposed a mandate last week.
The mandate came hours after a committee in Wisconsin’s GOP-controlled state legislature voted Tuesday in favor of the public university having to seek the legislature’s permission to impose a mask order or other Covid-19 policies, sparking a potential showdown as the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports it’s unclear whether the university will seek lawmakers’ approval regarding the policy.
The Phoenix Union High School District and Elementary School District will require face masks for all students and staff despite a statewide ban in Arizona against school mask mandates, which has already prompted a lawsuit from a Phoenix high school teacher seeking to strike the mask requirement down.
After Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis barred school districts from imposing their own mask mandates last week, school districts in Alachua and Duval counties have moved to require masks anyway as Covid-19 surges in the state.
Arkansas, South Carolina, Iowa, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah also prohibit schools from mandating masks.
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