Parents bring lawsuits to end school mask mandates

No mask mandate battles continue in eight Florida school districts. -SVT Photo

By Tami Stevenson

A lawsuit was filed against school officials in Alachua County last week for defying the state’s ban on school mask mandates. They were filed on behalf of parents that support Governor DeSantis and The Florida Department of Education’s no mask mandate law, that allows parents to make the choice whether their child wears a mask to school or not.

Alachua and another eight or more Florida school districts are facing financial penalties for not adhering to the law.

These sanctions would essentially affect the salaries of each school board member, not the teachers. However, President Biden dedicated taxpayer money from the Project Safe Grant to repay those school districts that defied the law on school mask mandates.

Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran said, “Every Floridian should be offended by the federal government’s interference in (this) state education issue. They can’t pick and choose which parts of the law they want to follow.”

In an October 7, 2021 FDOE press release, it stated that due to school districts’ persistent violations of students’ and families’ educational and privacy rights, including literally barring many students with special needs from a free and appropriate public education, the State Board of Education (SBOE) authorized Corcoran to financially sanction the salaries of elected school board bureaucrats in eight school districts. Elected school board members in Alachua, Brevard, Broward, Duval, Leon, Miami-Dade, Orange, and Palm Beach counties have willingly and knowingly violated the rights of students and parents by denying them the option to make personal and private health care and educational decisions for their children, and district leaders in Alachua and Broward have further unlawfully accepted political bailouts from federal co-conspirators to compensate them for breaking Florida law.

“Every school board member and every school superintendent has a duty to comply with the law, whether they agree with it or not. While the district school board may not agree with the safety protocols set forth by the Surgeon General, the Surgeon General is the person who, under the law, sets protocols to mitigate COVID-19 in schools,” said State Board of Education Chair Tom Grady. “Elected school board members should set a good example for our leaders of tomorrow. Instead, they are telling our younger generations that it is perfectly acceptable to pick and choose what laws they follow because they disagree with the underlying policy. That is simply unacceptable and antithetical to our Constitution.”