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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – Just over half of Florida’s 2.8 million public school students are now forced to wear masks in classrooms as a legal battle continues against the efforts of the Governor Ron DeSantis to leave these decisions to the parents.
A majority of Orange County School Board members told the superintendent on Tuesday to require most students to wear masks and accepted his recommendation to maintain the term until October 30.
The district started its school year this month with parental exclusion, but an increase in the number of students in the Orlando area testing positive for COVID-19 has disrupted classes. As of Tuesday, the district has reported 1,968 positive cases among students since the start of the school year, with 1,491 people in active quarantine, according to the district scorecard.
At least 10 school boards making up some of Florida’s largest districts are now defying the DeSantis administration’s attempt to ban local warrants on masks in schools. The Orange County Board of Directors has also said it wants to challenge the legality of a Florida Department of Health rule enforcing the ban.
In Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday, the Broward County School Board told the Education Department it would not back down on its mask policy, which gives parents a medical opt-out option for students. The board said it believed this was in line with the governor’s order and the department’s mask rule.
Parents, the council said, do not have the unlimited right to send their children to school without a mask, violating the rights of other parents who want their children to be safe.
DeSantis is not backing down. At a press conference at The Villages on Wednesday, the governor warned there would be additional consequences for school districts, but did not elaborate. DeSantis argues that provocative school boards violate the Parents Bill of Rights, enacted this summer, which gives parents the power to direct their children’s education.
“These school districts violate state law and they are overriding the judgment of parents on this matter,” he said, repeatedly pointing out that fabric masks do not prevent the spread of aerosols.
“If these entities are going to violate state law and take away parental rights…. there are consequences to that. There will always be more and I think we will see that ”, DeSantis added.
The state had given Broward and Alachua counties until Tuesday to end their mask tenure. Broward students started school a week ago with a mask policy in place. State officials have threatened to withhold funding equal to school board salaries if a district does not comply. These funds represent less than 1% of each district’s budget.
On Wednesday morning, police said the father of a student who tried to enter Fort Lauderdale High School without a mask was arrested after forcibly pushing another student who was trying to grab his cell phone. A police report said the father was filming students at the school’s front door and the student did not want to be filmed.
The father was charged with one count of aggravated child abuse.
Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade County School Board members held a virtual press conference on Wednesday to discuss the possibility of suing DeSantis and the state. All three said they had received online threats regarding the mask issue.
“We will not be pressured by the Governor or the State Board of Education when the safety and health of our students is at stake. We have a constitutional duty to protect our students,” said Lucia Baez-Geller, a member of the Miami-Dade school board. “Governor DeSantis created division with his rhetoric and threats. “
The Monroe County Board of Directors on Tuesday decided to require masks rather than strongly encourage them, but with a parental waiver that is expected to comply with the DeSantis ordinance.
On Wednesday, in Tallahassee, a three-day hearing that pitted pro-mask parents against the DeSantis administration and state education officials ended, with a judge ruling expected shortly. The state argues that parents, not schools, should choose whether their children cover up in classrooms.
“I take my rights and my freedom very seriously”, testified Jennifer Gillen, who supports the Governor’s Order and has two sons at schools in Lee County where there is no strict mask warrant. “Our rights are in fact threatened. “
Dr Jay Battacharya, professor of medicine and researcher at Stanford University who also supports the governor’s approach, said he usually only masks when necessary or to make others feel comfortable – not because he thinks they prevent exposure to coronaviruses. “I don’t believe there is high quality evidence to show that the masks are effective in stopping the spread of the disease,” he testified on Wednesday.
When asked what would be an acceptable death rate for children to justify maintaining a strict mask ban, Battacharya said it was an incorrect way of measuring the outcome. “I don’t think it’s fair to say what are acceptable deaths. Compared to what? It’s a question of compromise ”, he said.
The highly contagious delta variant led to an acceleration of cases around Florida and record hospitalizations just as schools prepared to reopen classrooms this month. By mid-August, more than 21,000 new cases were added per day, up from about 8,500 a month earlier. However, new cases and hospitalizations have stabilized over the past week. There were 16,820 people being treated for the disease in Florida hospitals on Tuesday, according to figures from the US Department of Health, up from a record high of more than 17,000 last week.
About 6 in 10 Americans say students and teachers should be required to wear face masks in school, according to a poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
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