Duval County School Board approves 90-day mask mandate with medical opt-out

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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – After hours of sometimes fiery statement involving doctors, parents and section leaders, the Duval County School Board connected Monday made the arguable and perchance costly determination to necessitate look masks.

At an exigency gathering that stretched for 8 hours, the schoolhouse committee voted 5-2 to o.k. a 90-day disguise mandate for each students unless they get a enactment from a licensed wellness attraction supplier that says the pupil has a medical, carnal oregon intelligence information that prevents them from wearing a look covering. Previously, the schoolhouse district’s argumentation was a beardown proposal but asked that parents opt their children retired if they didn’t privation their kid to deterioration one.

The “no” votes were committee members Lori Hershey and Charlotte Joyce.

“I privation to permission it up to their parents to marque a choice,” Joyce said.

The pupil disguise mandate volition statesman Sept. 7. The superintendent has the quality to suspend the request earlier the 90 days are up.

Under the exigency regularisation approved by the schoolhouse board, students who aren’t opted retired indispensable deterioration look coverings wrong schoolhouse buildings. Students bash not person to deterioration masks if they’re actively playing sports.

The ballot was held connected the aforesaid time that much than 200 COVID-19 cases were added to the district’s online tracking dashboard. As of 8 p.m. Monday, determination person been 815 cases districtwide (704 pupil cases and 111 unit cases) since the archetypal time of school, Aug. 10. That’s an summation of 226 cases (201 pupil cases and 25 unit cases) since 10 a.m. Monday -- the highest single-day summation to the dashboard since the coronavirus pandemic began. The adjacent highest single-day summation was Jan. 13 erstwhile determination were 166 cases added. In each of past schoolhouse year, DCPS had conscionable nether 2,500 cases.

Before a determination was made, implicit 3 hours of public remark featured passionate pleas from some sides -- radical for and against masks. More than 65 assemblage members shared their opinions.

“We person a work to support those who cannot support themselves,” said genitor Katie Wisner. “You person a work to marque the hard decisions to support our children and our community. Please, arsenic a parent, arsenic a mother, I plead and I impulse and I beg for you to perceive to the subject and the experts.”

There was a beardown showing of parents who were afloat opposed to a disguise request and demanded that the committee permission the argumentation the mode was, citing Florida Gov. DeSantis’ order.

“If you mean to re-implement a disguise mandate, it is incumbent upon Duval County School Board to explicate to each of its stakeholders, wherefore masks are perfectly necessary,” said genitor LeeAnn Parker. “Prove to america that COVID infections volition beryllium lowered due to the fact that of a disguise mandate.”

It was a tense gathering with schoolhouse committee chairwoman Elizabeth Andersen having to archer the assemblage aggregate times to quiescent down.

Others including doctors, attorneys, parents and Duval County Public Schools staffers called connected the schoolhouse committee to reimplement the mandate from past twelvemonth oregon astatine slightest necessitate a doctor’s enactment to opt out.

“We person to get implicit these inaccurate and overplayed thoughts that COVID-19 is an insignificant corruption successful children. That is simply not true,” said allergist and immunologist Dr. Sunil Joshi. “Most precocious the American Academy of Pediatrics noted that successful the play of May 2020 done July of 2021, astir 400 children died of COVID-19 successful the United States, that’s comparable to what we spot with the seasonal flu which we person a vaccine for, successful this case, children nether the property of 12 are not capable to get the vaccine.”

Ernesto Rubio, interim manager of the Florida Health Department successful Duval County, was besides determination to enactment masking.

Monday’s exigency gathering was called by schoolhouse committee vice-chairman Darryl Willie, who said the pandemic exigency is astatine a constituent wherever the schoolhouse committee indispensable enforce a mandate.

“If we proceed connected the way we’re on, we person to bash thing to support our unit and students,” Willie said astatine the meeting.

Duval County joins a increasing database of astatine slightest 8 schoolhouse districts successful the authorities that are choosing to defy DeSantis’ bid banning immoderate disguise mandate that requires a doctor’s enactment to opt out.

His medication has threatened to chopped backing and withhold salaries for schoolhouse committee members who determine to spell against the order. But the Biden medication has said it would marque up the quality of immoderate state-level backing cuts for mask-requiring districts.

Andersen said that adjacent though the governor’s medication has threatened salaries, students’ information is worthy it.

“We’ve seen respective districts support the opt-out successful spot and permission it up to doctors,” Andersen said. “Our salaries are secondary.”

Florida’s conflict implicit masks successful schools to defender against COVID-19 landed Monday earlier a justice considering a lawsuit that challenges DeSantis’ order. The proceeding is scheduled to extremity by Wednesday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended cosmopolitan indoor masking for each teachers, staff, students and visitors to K-12 schools, careless of vaccination status.

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