Most Florida students must wear masks, despite Gov. DeSantis

Most Florida students must wear masks, despite Gov. DeSantis

SeattlePI.com

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Just over half of Florida’s 2.8 million public school students now face mandates to wear masks in classrooms as a courtroom battle continues over efforts by Gov. Ron DeSantis to leave such decisions up to parents.

A majority of school board members in Orange County told the superintendent on Tuesday to require most students to wear masks, and agreed with her recommendation to keep the mandate through Oct. 30.

The district began its school year this month with a parental opt-out, but a surge in students across the Orlando area testing positive for COVID-19 has disrupted classes. Through Tuesday, the district reported 1,968 positive cases among students since school began, with 1,491 people under active quarantine, according to the district's dashboard.

At least 10 school boards making up some of the largest districts in Florida are now defying the DeSantis administration's attempt to ban local mandates on masks in schools. The Orange County board also said they want to challenge the legality of a Florida Department of Health rule enforcing the ban.

In Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday, the Broward County School Board told the Department of Education that it won't back down on its mask policy, which gives parents a medical opt-out for students. The board said parents don’t have an unlimited right to send their kids to school without a mask, adding that it would infringe on the rights of other parents who want their children to be safe.

The state had given Broward and Alachua counties until Tuesday to end their mask mandates. Broward's students began school a week ago with a mask policy in place. State officials have threatened to withhold funding equal to school board salaries if a district doesn’t comply. Those funds make up less than 1% of each...

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