Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says parents should decide if their children wear masks at school

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Friday vowed that he would ban any local school district from requiring students to wear masks even as the nation battles a resurgence of the coronavirus.

The Sunshine State CEO said he disagreed with guidelines released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recommend all students in Kindergarten to Grade 12 wear blankets when ‘They are going back to class this fall.

DeSantis said school districts in his state would have no choice but to define such a mandate.

“Very soon, I will be signing an executive order that orders the Florida Department of Education and Department of Health to issue emergency rules protecting the rights of parents to make this decision regarding the wearing of masks for their children. “said the governor to supporters of a cap. Coral restaurant.

“We think this is the fairest way to do it,” he added.

DeSantis went on to say that he and his wife have always opposed masks for their children.

“I have young children. My wife and I are not going to do the masks with the children. We have never done that,” he said. “I want to see my kids smile. I want them to have fun.”

the Florida Education Association, which represents 150,000 public school employees, said DeSantis erroneously follows a “one size fits all” policy.

“It doesn’t matter if we live in urban South Florida, in rural Panhandle or somewhere in between, we all want our children to be healthy and safe,” according to a union statement.

“Sadly, through his words and actions, Governor DeSantis has made it clear that he does not respect the freedom of elected officials to do what they believe is best for their communities.”

The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 615,000 Americans, according to a continuous tally from NBC News. At least 38,000 of those deaths have occurred in Florida, in a per capita rate that puts the Sunshine State squarely in the middle of the pack.

But the new delta variant has led to an increase in the number of cases, raising concerns among public health officials in the state.

About 48.7% of the population of Florida has been fully vaccinated, according to the NBC vaccination tracker. This places Florida slightly behind other major states like California (52.6), New York (56.9) and Pennsylvania (52.2) but ahead of Illinois (48.3) and Texas (43 , 7).

Despite the increase in cases, DeSantis said mask warrants for schoolchildren would make no sense anyway.

“Whatever you think of the masks, you have to wear them correctly. My kids won’t wear this thing correctly, you know that,” he told his supporters with a laugh.

“See if a parent really thinks this is something important for their child, we are not stopping it. They have every right to equip their student with the kind of masks they want.”