Florida School Board Defies Gov. DeSantis's Masking Ban

U.S.|A Florida schoolhouse committee defies the governor’s disguise ban.

• Published Aug. 15, 2021Updated Aug. 16, 2021, 5:08 a.m. ET

The chairwoman of the Broward County School Board successful Florida said connected Sunday that the territory had nary prime but to defy Gov. Ron DeSantis’s prohibition connected disguise mandates.

“We’re surviving retired the nightmare of the Covid pandemic, wherever truthful galore radical successful our county, including members of our unit and others, are being impacted,” said Rosalind Osgood, who heads the schoolhouse board, connected the CBS programme “Face the Nation.”

Florida’s cases are soaring. The authorities reported a seven-day rolling mean of 21,706 caller regular cases connected Saturday amid the worst surge of the pandemic. Deaths and hospitalizations are spiking, yet the fig of tests administered has decreased.

Broward County has mislaid 2 teachers and an acquisition adjunct to complications from Covid-19, Dr. Osgood said. The schoolhouse committee imposed a disguise mandate for students, unit members and visitors; a doctor’s enactment is required for pupil exemptions.

“We judge that we person a law work to support the lives of our students and staff,” Dr. Osgood said.

After Mr. DeSantis threatened to withhold schoolhouse funds, the Biden medication stepped in. Officials said they supported the disguise mandate and would let the schools to usage funds from pandemic alleviation measures to regenerate the salaries.

“It was precise encouraging to get the enactment of the White House during this very, precise hard clip that we find ourselves in,” Dr. Osgood said.

Educators successful Florida are alert of the antagonistic interaction of truthful overmuch clip distant from in-person schooling for galore students, including intelligence wellness risks and declining world performance, she said. That made the disguise mandate each the much important, on with on-site investigating measures, vaccination entree and aerial filtration.

“We’ve been moving highly hard to enactment these successful place, and we’re not going to hazard their lives by allowing it to beryllium optional,” Dr. Osgood said.