Parents, educators join Nikki Fried in urging Board of Education to reverse course on school masks

Image via Jason Delgado.

Alongside parents and educators, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried urged the Department of Education to reverse course Tuesday on plans to punish school districts who implement a mask mandate on school grounds.

The collective’s plea comes as the State Board of Education considers funding cuts Tuesday against two school districts — Alachua and Broward — who officials say violated Gov. Ron DeSantis’ order against student mask mandates in Florida.

Issued in July, the order empowers Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran to impose financial consequences against districts deemed in violation. Both counties require students and teachers to wear masks in school and allow opt-outs under limited circumstances.

“Our state leaders are playing politics,” Fried said at the Capitol. “It is the height of hypocrisy for so-called conservatives, Ron DeSantis and Richard Corcoran, to tell local school districts that they will be punished for making decisions they think are in the best interest of their communities.”

Speaking inside the Cabinet room, Fried pointed to the rise in pediatric COVID-19 cases as reason enough to reverse course.

More than 5,000 students in Hillsborough County, she said, are under quarantine.

What’s more, at least three educators have died with COVID-19 in Brevard Country and Orange County schools reported 238 COVID-19 cases among students Monday.

“This is an emergency,” Fried said. “Instead of focusing on how to help, our Governor and Commissioner of Education are spending time trying to figure out how to punish school districts (rather) than ask their students to wear masks.”

Nearly a dozen parents including Wendy Howick, the grandmother of a kindergartener and second-grader in Leon County, spoke alongside Fried.

Howick said she learned the value of masking after her 5-year-old granddaughter contracted COVID-19 at a private pre-K that did not require masks. She criticized DeSantis and Corcoran for bucking the advice of scientists and doctors.

Mutual masking, she said, is the best path forward.

“Parents should not have a right to sacrifice the health and lives of their child’s classmates for their own child’s comfort or to promote their sense of personal freedom,” Howick said.

According to the Florida Department of Health, 16,754 children under the age of 12 tested positive for COVID-19 from Aug. 6-12.

The total, DOH reports, accounts for a 22.1% positivity rate among children tested.

Anthony DeMarco, a father of a 13-year-old in Leon County, said sending his son into an umasked environment is a “death sentence.”

DeMarco’s son, who is eager to return to classroom instruction, lives with two failing heart valves and a pacemaker.

“While my child’s situation is very unique, he’s not unique,” DeMarco said. “There’s 3,000 kids in this district that are high risk that can’t go to school. We don’t have options.”

Fried will speak before the Florida Board of Education for one minute at the emergency meeting.