Gov. DeSantis doubles down on opposition to mask mandates in schools

CAPE CORAL, Fla. – Inside a edifice afloat of unmasked supporters Friday morning, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced helium would motion an exigency regularisation “protecting the rights of parents to marque this determination astir wearing masks for their children.”

“There volition beryllium nary schoolhouse closures. There volition beryllium nary restrictions and nary mandates successful the authorities of Florida,” DeSantis told the cheering crowd. “Floridians person been and volition stay escaped to take what’s champion for themselves and their families. We volition support their close to work, we’ll support the close of businesses to run and we volition support the close of our kids to be schoolhouse successful person.”

No authorities authoritative oregon large wellness radical has recommended closing schools this fall, but with COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths astatine rates not seen since the wintertime surge, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week recommended “universal masking” successful schools.

“Children should instrumentality to full-time in-person learning successful the autumn with due prevention strategies successful place,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensk said Tuesday. “CDC recommends assemblage leaders promote vaccination and cosmopolitan masking to forestall further outbreaks successful areas of important and precocious transmission with the delta variant.”

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No Florida schoolhouse districts person said they are adjacent considering not returning schoolroom learning erstwhile schools unfastened adjacent month, but Broward County connected Wednesday decided to necessitate masks for each students, teachers and unit — successful usurpation of authorities instrumentality — and Miami-Dade is considering a akin rule.

Citing a Brown University economics study from May comparing the corruption complaint of students successful Florida to different states successful the 2020-21 schoolhouse year, DeSantis said it recovered “no correlation of disguise mandates and corruption rates.”

“My woman and I person ne'er done masks with our kids. Never have. Never will. I privation to spot my kids smiling,” helium said.

DeSantis said his enforcement bid volition reenforce the Parents Bill of Rights the legislature passed and helium signed successful the outpouring that prevents immoderate authorities instauration from infringing connected the “fundamental rights” of parents to nonstop the education, wellness attraction and intelligence wellness of their children.

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The politician said helium won’t halt immoderate genitor from having their kid deterioration a disguise if they deliberation that’s the champion option.

Several section officials, including the president of the Duval County Medical Society Foundation, person called connected DeSantis to contented a antithetic exigency order, 1 adding restrictions for authorities employees and others to respond to spiking rates of transmission and hospitals filling up with COVID-19 patients. Florida hospitals reported astir 9,000 patients with COVID-19 connected Thursday, not acold disconnected past year’s highest of adjacent to 10,200 cases.

The state’s largest teachers’ national rapidly reacted to DeSantis’ propulsion backmost astatine locally-elected schoolhouse boards making their ain decisions.

“Gov. DeSantis continues to deliberation that Tallahassee knows champion what each Floridians need,” Florida Education Association President Andrew Spar said. “Instead, we inquire Gov. DeSantis to let each Florida’s citizens to person a dependable by empowering the elected leaders of cities, counties and schoolhouse districts to marque wellness and information decisions locally based connected their unsocial needs and circumstances.”

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This is simply a processing communicative that volition beryllium updated passim the day.

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