Arkansas Governor Seeks to Lift Ban on School Mask Mandate

Arkansas Governor Seeks to Lift Ban on School Mask Mandate
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson in the Senate Chamber of the state Capitol in Little Rock, Ark., on April 8, 2020. Tommy Metthe/Arkansas Democrat-Gazette via AP
Bill Pan
Bill Pan
Reporter
|Updated:

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has announced that he will be calling the state legislature into a special session to consider allowing school boards to require students and staff to wear masks in schools.

Hutchinson in April signed into law legislation that prohibits state and local government entities, including public school districts, from requiring or mandating any kind of face covering. The Republican governor said Thursday, however, that he is planning to call a special session—most likely next week—for the purpose of changing that law.