Escape key disables mouse and touch screen on Minecraft PE

I am using an iPad 10th generation with a keyboard and mouse connected via CalDigit Soho dock. I am able to play the game just fine using the keyboard and mouse with default keyboard and mouse settings. BUT as soon as I press the escape key to go to the game settings, the mouse no longer works in the game AND the touch screen no longer works to control the game. I have to close the app and restart it for the mouse and touch screen to work again. The problem does not occur if I just use touch screen to press the pause button on the screen GUI to get to the game settings. The escape key seems to the be issue. I tried a different keyboard and got the same result. It also occurred in the previous version of iOS and previous version of Minecraft. I tried updating both to fix the issue, but it persisted. Thank you in advance!