Florida Governor Ron DeSantis filed an urgent appeal on Thursday to restore his ban on school wearing masks after a lower court judge allowed the school district to continue to allow returning children to wear masks.
In his filing with the First District Court of Appeals in Florida, DeSantis’ attorneys urged the court to restore the injunction against masks while the legal case passes through the court system. The lawyers argued that they “have a high probability of success in the appeal,” and then accused the court of first instance of “abusing its discretion” to cancel the automatic suspension of DeSantis’ initial appeal.
On August 27, Judge Leon Cooper of the Second Circuit of Florida ordered the end of DeSantis’ ban on school masks, paving the way for school districts where he threatened to cut funding to continue their policies.
In his first ruling, Cooper described DeSantis’ initial executive order for school masking requirements as “without legal authority”. DeSantis appealed the decision on September 3, which suspended Cooper’s order.
However, Cooper said on Wednesday that there was not enough irreparable damage to set aside the automatic suspension caused by the appeal. He justified his ruling by pointing out that Florida is currently a hotspot for COVID-19, which would justify wearing masks for school children. He believes that another option is to leave unvaccinated children at home, which in itself will cause greater harm.
Cooper mentioned the fact that the Delta variant of COVID-19 is more likely to infect children than the earlier strain. Apart from masking or vaccination, the only option is to isolate at home. The current COVID-19 vaccine is approved for children over 12 years old, but it has not been approved for younger children.
DeSantis and several local school districts have been debating whether school officials can require students to wear masks when they return to school. After some people defy his initial executive order in July, DeSantis and his government threatened to withhold the wages of the defying school district officials.
It is unclear how DeSantis, who is running for re-election in 2022, plans to punish the local school district. Earlier, the New York Times reported that it was unclear how the DeSantis government plans to withhold any wages from district officials because the state did not actually pay them. Florida State Richard Education Commissioner Cocoran once suggested that funds equivalent to the salaries of school board members and superintendents can be deducted.
While Florida is widely regarded as the center of the US fight against COVID-19, opposition to wearing masks has emerged. According to the CDC’s overview of Florida during the week of September 3, there were 129,601 new cases in the state, and many counties were classified as high risk of transmission.
