{"id":700164,"date":"2021-08-30T15:35:14","date_gmt":"2021-08-30T19:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=700164"},"modified":"2021-08-30T15:35:24","modified_gmt":"2021-08-30T19:35:24","slug":"biden-administration-opens-civil-rights-investigations-into-states-banning-school-mask-mandates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-administration-opens-civil-rights-investigations-into-states-banning-school-mask-mandates\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden Administration Opens Civil Rights Investigations Into States Banning School Mask Mandates"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbiden-administration-opens-civil-rights-investigations-into-states-banning-school-mask-mandates%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=700164&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The Department of Education opened civil rights investigations into five states that banned mask mandates in schools, asking whether the bans discriminated disabled students.<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Education\u2019s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) will investigate whether students at a heightened risk of getting a severe case of coronavirus were discriminated against in the states that imposed <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/08\/12\/ron-desantis-covid-19-coronavirus-tucker-carlson\/\">mask mandate bans<\/a>, the agency <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ed.gov\/news\/press-releases\/department-educations-office-civil-rights-opens-investigations-five-states-regarding-prohibitions-universal-indoor-masking\">announced<\/a> Monday. Department of Education Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Suzanne Goldberg notified <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.ed.gov\/about\/offices\/list\/ocr\/correspondence\/other\/20210830-iowa-doe.pdf\">Iowa<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.ed.gov\/about\/offices\/list\/ocr\/correspondence\/other\/20210830-oklahoma-state-boe.pdf\">Oklahoma<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.ed.gov\/about\/offices\/list\/ocr\/correspondence\/other\/20210830-south-carolina-doe.pdf\">South Carolina<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.ed.gov\/about\/offices\/list\/ocr\/correspondence\/other\/20210830-tennessee-doe.pdf\">Tennessee<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.ed.gov\/about\/offices\/list\/ocr\/correspondence\/other\/20210830-utah-state-boe.pdf\">Utah<\/a> officials of the probes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s simply unacceptable that state leaders are putting politics over the health and education of the students they took an oath to serve,\u201d Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement. \u201cThe Department will fight to protect every student\u2019s right to access in-person learning safely and the rights of local educators to put in place policies that allow all students to return to the classroom full-time in-person safely this fall.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cardona added that parents of disabled students with underlying medical conditions have reached out to the Department of Education requesting that it takes action against the bans. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/08\/29\/obama-admin-official-compares-mindsets-actions-anti-maskers-suicide-bombers\/\">(RELATED: \u2018Soulless Ghoul\u2019: Obama Admin Official Compares \u2018Mindsets\u2019 And \u2018Actions\u2019 Of Anti-Maskers To Suicide Bombers)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The agency won\u2019t investigate Texas, <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/08\/19\/ron-desantis-politicians-mask-mandates\/\">Florida<\/a> and other states where similar bans were blocked by courts. Last week, a Florida judge <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/08\/27\/ron-desantis-judge-school-mask-mandates-florida\/\">ruled<\/a> that local school districts in the state could impose mask mandates, overriding Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 order banning such actions.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7272057\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" readability=\"33\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7272057\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7272057\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1332533393-scaled-1.jpg\" alt=\"Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona answers questions during a briefing at the White House on Aug. 5. (Win McNamee\/Getty Images)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1332533393-scaled-1.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/cdn01.dailycaller.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1332533393-181x120.jpg 181w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1332533393-620x412-1.jpg 620w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1332533393-768x510-1.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1332533393-1536x1021-1.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1332533393-2048x1361-1.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-7272057\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona answers questions during a briefing at the White House on Aug. 5. (Win McNamee\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Goldberg\u2019s letters to the five states indicated the OCR is concerned restrictions on mask mandates prevent schools \u201cfrom meeting their legal obligations not to discriminate based on disability and from providing an equal educational opportunity to students with disabilities who are at heightened risk of severe illness from COVID-19.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cardona previously sent letters to the five states under investigation, urging them to prioritize students\u2019 health and safety, the Department of Education said.<\/p>\n<p>President Joe Biden <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/presidential-actions\/2021\/08\/18\/ensuring-a-safe-return-to-in-person-school-for-the-nations-children\/\">directed<\/a> the secretary to assess his options for holding states that have banned mask mandates accountable in an Aug. 18 memorandum.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnfortunately, as we\u2019ve seen throughout this pandemic, some politicians are trying to turn public safety measures \u2014 that is, children wearing masks in school \u2014 into political disputes for their own political gain,\u201d Biden said during <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/speeches-remarks\/2021\/08\/18\/remarks-by-president-biden-on-fighting-the-covid-19-pandemic-2\/\">remarks<\/a> announcing the memo. \u201cSome are even trying to take power away from local educators by banning masks in school.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re setting a dangerous tone,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact <a href=\"mailto:licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org\">licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Education opened civil rights investigations into five states that banned mask mandates in schools, asking whether the bans discriminated disabled students.The Department of Education\u2019s Office for Civil &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-700164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}