Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran said on Tuesday that he believes that two Florida school districts violated the governor’s rules. Ron DeSantis‘It is forbidden to wear masks.
In early August, after the two school districts voted to pass the requirement for wearing masks, Corcoran began investigating Alachua County Public Schools and Broward County Public Schools. On Tuesday, he issued two memos to the State Board of Education in which he stated that his “enforcement powers” should be used against the two offending areas, and that he found that the “probable cause” was Alachua County and Broward County schools The behavior “violated the law.”
The memorandum said: “Every school board member and every school leader has an obligation to abide by the law, regardless of whether they agree to it or not.”
The memorandum argues that these areas violated two recent state laws, because the DeSantis executive order on July 30 and the recently passed Parental Rights Act made it illegal to implement masks in schools.
DeSantis signed the Bill of Rights into law on June 29, stating that parents and legal guardians have the right to “guide the child’s upbringing, education, medical care, and mental health.” Legislators and others believe that this includes wearing masks.
DeSantis’ office issued a statement on August 9 stating that schools that violated the ban on wearing masks issued by his executive order may face monetary sanctions. Specifically, the statement said, “The State Board of Education can take action to withhold the salary of the study district director or school board member as a narrow means to target decision-makers who have violated the law.”
After Alachua and Broward counties announced that they would adhere to the rule of wearing masks, Cochrane sent them a letter promising to investigate and threaten sanctions.
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Despite DeSantis’ orders, Broward County’s school board members voted 8 to 1 to retain the requirement to wear masks.After receiving Corcoran’s letter, the board of directors sent back a letter on the grounds that the risk of coronavirus cases has increased and updated CEnter the disease control and prevention guidelines as a reason to maintain its mission.However, the region does promise to “in [the] Reference survey. “
The board of directors asked Corcoran to “seriously consider the appropriateness of withholding funds, recognizing that this will reduce the general allocation of funds and may affect services to students.”
One way that Florida schools can bypass the statewide ban on wearing masks is to allow parents to easily opt-out without specific reasons or medical conditions other than the parents’ preference. Some school districts, such as Duval County Public Schools, found that they avoided investigations by providing simple paperwork for opt-out options.
Weekly newspaper Contacted the Commissioner’s Office for comments, but received no response before publication.
