Florida Board of Education votes to sanction 8 school districts with no-opt-out mask mandates

Thursday’s vote is the latest development in a showdown between the state and a handful of local school districts that have decided to implement a mask requirement in their schools, defying an executive order from Governor Ron DeSantis that sought to give parents choose whether their children should wear masks in class. The state had threatened to withhold funding for districts that violated order and demanded masks for everyone.

Duval County Schools Superintendent Diana Greene noted that after the school’s second week of opening, the district recorded 10 employee deaths.

In addition, the Department of Health has had an “obvious inability” to carry out contact tracing, case investigations and timely notifications to affected families, she said, which has had “A direct impact on the spread of the virus in our school, ultimately endangering the health and safety of students and employees.

Brevard County Schools Superintendent Mark Mullins argued that mask warrants were needed after schools opened without them, resulting in “catastrophic results for our schools and our community.”

“We had over 3,200 positive cases, had to close one school and were about to close more,” Mullins said, adding that staff members had also been hospitalized.

In a statement released Thursday, Alachua County Superintendent Carlee Simon said the district would “maintain its current masking protocols” despite the sanction, saying, “We believe these protocols comply with the law of the State and our constitutional obligation to provide students with a safe learning environment. “

In its own statement, the State Board of Education said, in part, that school board members from the eight sanctioned districts had “willfully and knowingly violated the rights of students and parents by denying them the opportunity to making personal and private health care and educational decisions for their children.

“Elected school board members should set a good example for our leaders of tomorrow,” said Tom Grady, chairman of the State Board of Education. “Instead, they tell our younger generations that it is perfectly acceptable to choose the laws they follow because they disagree with the underlying policy. It is simply unacceptable and contrary to our Constitution.”

Board of Education commissioner criticizes federal grants

“I firmly believe that this federal grant program improperly attempts to interfere with the authority of the State Council to manage our state’s education system. Education is a state responsibility, not a federal responsibility and a entrusted to this council under our state constitution, “Corcoran said.

In response, Ian Rosenblum, deputy assistant secretary for policies and programs at the education ministry, sent a letter to Corcoran on Thursday saying that efforts to deny more funding to schools presented “legal problems”.

“We should thank the districts for using proven strategies that will keep schools open and safe, without punishing them. We stand with the dedicated educators in Alachua and across the country doing what it takes to protect their children. school communities, ”said US Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. said last month.

“With these grants, we are ensuring that schools and communities across the country who are committed to a safe return to in-person learning know that we are supporting them,” he said.

6 districts have filed a petition challenging the rule

Six of the districts filed a petition against the Department of Health on Wednesday, challenging the rule that blocked the implementation of mask warrants and another allowing parents to decide whether their student should quarantine after being exposed to Covid- 19.

The petition has been filed with the Florida Administrative Affairs Division on behalf of the Miami-Dade, Broward, Orange, Duval, Alachua and Leon County school boards.

The petition specifically challenged the rule allowing parents to remove their children from mask warrants, calling it “arbitrary and capricious”.

The rule, the petitioners asserted, “is in fact focused not on controlling COVID-19 but rather on protecting parental rights.”

“The DOH has no regulatory power in this area,” the petition said, “and has therefore exceeded its regulatory power.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the county where Mark Mullins works. He is the superintendent of public schools in Brevard County.