Florida Board of Education officials said on Tuesday that two county school districts violated state laws because they require students without medical exemptions to wear masks and may face penalties. Governor Ron DeSantis threatened to withhold funds from school districts that require masks.
School leaders in Alachua and Broward counties are facing a series of possible penalties for requiring students and teachers to wear masks to protect themselves and each other. DeSantis signed an executive order on June 30 to ban the wearing of masks and to enable parents to decide on the measures they believe are most beneficial to their children’s health. In any case, these two counties are mandatory to wear masks, and students are only allowed to choose not to wear masks if they provide medical reasons.
Dangerous actions of DeSantis administrators:
Florida education officials voted to punish Broward County and Alachua County school districts for requiring students to wear masks.https://t.co/YIa56fFsW2
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 17, 2021
Now, there is a 17-year-old student with cerebral palsy in Florida who cannot return to school because Ron DeSantis banned wearing a mask.
“He must tell DeSantis that the fact that he doesn’t think the governor of Florida cares about him is heartbreaking,” said @Nikki Fried. pic.twitter.com/JhkJlS2AQe
— Zerlina on Peacock (@ZerlinaShow) August 16, 2021
The Florida State Education Commissioner said: “We have regions to pick and choose the laws they want to comply with.” Richard Kirkland.
Kirkland Write in the letter Last week, if the school district decides to require a doctor to issue a certificate, the state will impose financial penalties. He threatened to withhold “funds equivalent to the salary of the principal and all school board members.”
As face-to-face learning will resume this fall, Florida and states such as Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas have been opposing the regulations for students to wear masks. Although DeSantis threatened to withhold funds if they did not obey his orders, Delta’s variant is forcing some schools to reconsider their position on masks.
Chairman of the State Assembly Tom Grady Said that the punishment “may involve withholding wages, may involve the firing of officials, and may involve reviewing regional behavior.”
Broward County Public Schools’ interim superintendent said that her school board insisted on maintaining the decision to maintain the mask requirement.
“My core value is student first. No amount of personal financial loss will make me violate this value.”https://t.co/KdgPZPv1Vn
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 13, 2021
The Florida Board of Education voted to punish two school districts that required masks because #Coronavirus disease The number of cases continues to rise.
Broward Alachua County ignoring Governor DeSantis’ regulations and compulsory wearing masks, Governor DeSantis prohibits such regulations and threatens to withhold the wages of officials who enforce them. pic.twitter.com/tOh9lKO8g2
— AJ+ (@ajplus) August 18, 2021
After nearly 8,000 students were forced to quarantine last week, the Hillsborough School Board is considering mandatory masks. Since August 9, there have been approximately 1,200 COVID-19 cases in schools in the county, including 487 on Monday. In addition to the new infection in Hillsboro, three educators in Broward County also died of the virus last week.
The Alachua County School Board unanimously voted to extend the school district’s mask regulations for eight weeks. At the same time, Broward has decided to fight against state punishment.
“Once we are sanctioned, we will challenge the sanctions in court,” said Rosalind Osgood, Chairman of the Broward County School Board. Osgood added that the school plans to start tomorrow as planned.
On August 17, Florida reported A record high of 21,669 new cases And 7 COVID-19 deaths, an average of 24,720 cases and 138 deaths in 7 days.The state currently has 2.96 million cases and the total death toll is 41,130 One of the worst COVID broke out in the United States.
