Texas restaurant tells couple with immunocompromised baby to take off masks or leave

A couple in Texas was told not to wear masks when visiting a restaurant with a four-month-old son who has cystic fibrosis. After refusing to take their masks off, they were asked to leave. 

Natalie Wester and her husband, Jose Lopez, who are both fully vaccinated, said that an employee at Hang Time, a restaurant in Rowlett, Texas, told them several times to remove their masks when they were out with their immunocompromised son, Austin, last week. They've been choosing to still wear masks in public to protect their child. 

"Cystic fibrosis is a very life-threatening genetic disorder, and if my son were to contract COVID he would need to be hospitalized," Wester vented on Facebook. 

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Messages made by USA TODAY to Hang Time were not immediately returned. 

Wester described a story on Facebook of how she and her husband were told about a "no mask" policy before being served and then were eventually asked to leave: "Our waitress comes, sits down next to me, and says, 'Our manager sent me over because I'm nicer than he is. And yes, this is political.' She then told me that masks are not allowed in their building, and they can make the rules because they are private business. She said that the mask 'doesn't work, is like using a chain-link fence to keep out mosquitoes, and doesn't give people enough oxygen.' "

The owner of Hang Time Sports Grill & Bar, Tom Blackmer, confirmed to local station CBS 11 that no masks are allowed in his establishment. 

"I have spent my money on the business, my blood sweat and tears in this business, and I don't want masks in here," he told the outlet. "So when they put their masks on the other night, they were reminded that at the front to take it off. They didn't want to, and so we asked them to leave. ...I feel the overall reaction with masks is ridiculous in the United States right now."

Blackmer also told The Dallas Morning News: “They have a choice to go wherever they want; there are thousands of bars around here. Go somewhere else. ...If you are protecting somebody, you should not go out."

Wester added in her Facebook post of the ordeal: "I am so shocked at the level of ignorance in our country, and scared to think how much worse the pandemic will get knowing so many folks think this way."

The bar owner's stance comes on the heels of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order that states that authoritative bodies like counties and schools cannot make Texans wear a mask.

States throughout the nation have varied on their mask mandates since the delta variant. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) maintains that wearing masks can stop the spread of the coronavirus, and President Biden recently initiated a nationwide mandate for companies with over 100 employees to wear masks. Texas is among the states leading the nation in COVID-19 cases. Some Texas school districts have requested mask mandates to protect students and teachers against the virus, despite Gov. Abbott's executive order. 

According to the Disability Rights Texas, a legal protection and advocacy organization, people with disabilities are entitled to wear a mask. The group said in a public statement unrelated to this incident: “In our view, that accommodation might also be offered to family members of individuals with a disability, based either on the law or on notions of neighborliness and common decency."