The revolt against Florida Gov. Ron Desantis’s anti-mask stance continues to grow amid the COVID-19 outbreak in schools across the state. On Sunday, Leon County Schools, home to the capital city of Tallahassee, became the latest school district in Florida to institute a mask mandate for students that doesn’t give parents the choice to opt out, telling them “your rights end when that child’s rights are infringed on.”
Superintendent Rocky Hanna announced in a video on Facebook that the district will require masks for students from pre-K to eighth grade starting Monday.
“I am aware that I am the first elected school superintendent to take such action. I am also aware, fully aware, of the consequences I may suffer,” he said.
“Governor, I do have an obligation to uphold the laws of the state of Florida,” he added in a direct message to DeSantis. “I have a greater obligation, however, to protect for the health, safety and welfare of the children in Tallahassee and Leon County.”
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Hanna said he had written to DeSantis’s office a week before students returned to class earlier this month to ask for more “flexibility” in the governor’s order that allows parents to opt their children out of being required to wear face coverings in schools.
“Local hospitalizations during the first week of August started to increase, and some of our children were beginning to fall ill from the delta variant of the COVID-19 virus,” he said.
Hanna said he wanted more leeway to temporarily require masks for “students ages 5 to 11 in our elementary schools and our middle schools,” calling them the “most vulnerable because they’re not yet eligible to become vaccinated.”
But Hanna said he never received a response. Two days before school was set to start, he announced the district would require masks with a medical exemption option.
That same day, Hanna said he “received a very harsh and threatening letter” from Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran saying the new policy violated state law and that if the district moved forward, Hanna and “members of the Leon County school board would be held in violation and face the maximum penalties under the law.”
Hanna said the district ending up making an about-face on the policy Sunday after recording more than 245 positive cases in the seven days students have been in school, which he said amounted to nearly a “third of the total we had from all of last year.”
“I am a total favor of individual rights and freedoms and the rights of parents; however, I strongly believe that my rights end when they infringe on the rights of others,” he said. “It has also been well documented by the vast majority of health care experts that these masks not only protect the person wearing the mask; more importantly, they protect the child beside them, and to me, your rights end when that child’s rights are infringed on.”
“We are simply asking you to have that same consideration for us. Leaders should never allow pride or politics to cloud their better judgment,” he added.
The move by Hanna comes days after Florida’s Board of Education warned two other school districts that they could lose funding if they fail to comply with DeSantis’s orders.
Wath Hanna’s announcement below, via Facebook:
