Schools in Florida’s capital will now require that all students wear a mask starting Monday. The mandate does not give parents the option to opt out, a move that defies an executive order from Gov. Ron DeSantis and may put the district superintendent’s salary in jeopardy, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.
Leon County Schools Superintendent Rocky Hanna announced in a Facebook Livestream on Sunday that starting Monday, the district will require all students in grades pre-K to 8th grade wear a mask to school.
“The reason for this is because these children are not eligible to become vaccinated and remain the most vulnerable in our community,” he said.
Parents who don’t want their elementary or middle school student to wear a mask will need to get a signed note from their child’s physician or psychologist by Friday.
The decision by Hanna comes after the district which has 32,000 students saw COVID cases skyrocket since school reopened a week and a half ago. Cases on Friday increased by over 40 from 222 to 264 on the LCS COVID-19 Positive Cases Dashboard. 916 students were in quarantine as of Friday.
The district initially had this current mandate in place but backed off after DeSantis and Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran said districts could only impose a mask mandate if parents can opt out their children on their own, The Associated Press noted. DeSantis and Corcoran threatened to cut funding from districts that implement a mask mandate and any member of their board who supported such mandates would face financial repercussions.
“I am aware that I am the first elected school superintendent to take such action. I am also aware, fully aware, of the consequences I may suffer,” Hanna said on Sunday.
Speaking to DeSantis he said: “Governor, I do have an obligation to uphold the laws of the state of Florida. I have a greater obligation, however, to protect for the health, safety and welfare of the children in Tallahassee and Leon County.”
“I am in total favor of individual rights and freedoms and the rights of parents; however, I strongly believe that my rights end when they infringe on the rights of others,” he said. “It has also been well documented by the vast majority of health care experts that these masks not only protect the person wearing the mask; more importantly, they protect the child beside them, and to me, your rights end when that child’s rights are infringed on.”
Leon County Schools is the seventh school district in Florida to defy Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ban on such COVID-19 mandates, AP notes.
