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 Some opponents of the mask proposal brandished signs that read “Let
Our Children Breathe.” Even with Florida seeing a record number of
coronavirus cases, one attendee called the pandemic "overblown."
Another was escorted out by deputies after yelling at board members.
The proposal would require staff and students to wear masks for 14
days at schools with COVID positivity rates at or above 5%. But
Florida's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, effectively banned
similar mandates in July.
Since DeSantis' order, more than a dozen Florida counties have
rebelled and voted to require masks to protect students and teachers
as the Delta variant sweeps across the state. This week, the state's
Department of Education sanctioned two counties that passed school
mask requirements.
The battle between DeSantis and the state's school systems echoes
larger fights across the country. Other Republican-run states such
as Arizona and Texas have also banned mask mandates in schools even
as COVID cases have soared in their states, as parents and voters
are sharply divided over safety measures and personal freedoms.
The pushback in Florida against the Republican governor initially
was led by large urban school districts run by Democrats. But this
week saw more conservative counties that backed Republican Donald
Trump in the 2020 presidential election also defying DeSantis and
instituting their own mandates.
Earlier this week, populous Brevard County along Florida’s east
coast, which went for Trump over President Joe Biden by more than 16
percentage points in November, narrowly voted to approve a 30-day
school mask mandate.
A day later, Hernando County, which supported Trump over Biden by
almost 30 points, also passed a mandate, but one that allows parents
to opt out.
In Lake County near Orlando, which also strongly backed Trump, a
school official said on Thursday that more than 1,000 students of
the 36,000 in the district had tested positive for the virus.
The board listened to more than three hours of public comment on the
mask proposal then postponed a decision. Some 280 people spoke or
sent emails on the issue, and two-thirds of them supported the idea,
the Orlando Sentinel reported.
Still, proponents of a mask mandate were booed and heckled by the
crowd in attendance.
“This topic has completely polarized communities,” said Andrea
Messina, president of the Florida School Boards Association.
'ABSOLUTE CRISIS'
While the conflict centers on whether state or local governments are
best equipped to make decisions on health and safety, it also has
become a political challenge for DeSantis, whose state has once
again become a COVID-19 hotbed.
[to top of second column] |
 After being widely praised last
year when cases declined and the state’s economy
seemed revived, DeSantis has faced renewed
criticism for his opposition to masks and
employer vaccine mandates. Florida on Aug. 26
saw a single-day record number of new cases of
the virus – almost 28,000 – since the pandemic
began. A spokesperson for
DeSantis, Christina Pushaw, defended the ban on school mandates,
saying the governor is "protecting the rights of families and
children from all levels of government overreach."
At the Brevard County meeting on Monday, Misty Bedford, the chair of
the school board who a month earlier had opposed a mask mandate,
switched her vote and gave proponents a 3-2 majority.
Bedford changed her mind, she told Reuters, after watching the
district’s caseload spike, including a 49% increase in student cases
from one week to the next. One school was closed for two days after
most of its students were quarantined.
“We are at an absolute crisis point," Belford said.
But board member Katye Campbell, who voted against the mandate, said
she worries about negative effects on students from requiring masks,
such as asthma flare-ups, suicidal ideation and panic attacks.
“There is nothing easy about this decision because our community is
so divided,” Campbell said.
Belford said she was relying on a decision from a Florida court last
week that declared the DeSantis ban illegal. DeSantis has vowed to
appeal the ruling. On Monday, the Florida Board of Education said it
would penalize two counties that voted for mask mandates, Alachua
and Broward, by withholding funds from the districts for the board
members’ salaries.
Leanetta McNealy, chair of the Alachua County school board, said her
board voted for the mask mandate last month based on scientific
evidence that it would help mitigate the spread of the highly
contagious Delta variant.
“I’d rather have a decrease in my compensation than have a death
under my watch,” she said.
(Reporting by Saundra Amrhein in Tavares, Florida and James Oliphant
in Washington; Editing by Soyoung Kim and Cynthia Osterman)
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