5 minute read
Local news: legal battle over protest law calls for advanced grammar skills
PHOTO BY GAGE SKIDMORE
THE MASK ZINGER
Advertisement
Florida judge overturns DeSantis’ mask mandate ban in public schools
BY DARA KAM, NSF
In a closely watched ruling last week, Leon County Circuit Judge John C. Cooper on Friday blocked the executive order of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that barred public schools from instituting mask mandates. Ten districts, including Orange County Public Schools, defied the governor’s order, enacting mask mandates with exceptions only for medical reasons.
Ironically, it was the much-touted law passed by DeSantis and Florida Republicans creating a “parents’ bill of rights” that poked holes in their authority to institute a mask mandate ban.
After four days of testimony and arguments, Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper on Friday sided with the parents who challenged a July 30 DeSantis executive order that sought to bar school mask mandates.
The ruling came as coronavirus cases are increasing in schools across the state, prompting student quarantines by the thousands in some districts.
Cooper issued an injunction barring the state Department of Education, Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran and the State Board of Education from enforcing DeSantis’ order.
But Cooper said he could not strike down a state Department of Health rule that was triggered by DeSantis’ order. The rule said, in part, that any local school mask mandates must allow parents to opt out. The health department was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
Cooper’s ruling hinged largely on the Parents’ Bill of Rights.
Cooper ruled that the new law grants school districts the right to impose student mask mandates and that state officials could challenge the requirements — but only if the districts were given due process.
“The actions of the defendants do not pass constitutional muster because they seek to deprive the school boards in advance and without the school boards’ right to show the reasonableness of the policy. The law does not require that the school board get permission for the policy in advance, it requires only that if a policy is challenged, it has a burden to prove its validity under the guidelines of the statute,” Cooper said.
DeSantis said Thursday that the Parents’ Bill of Rights was a linchpin of the state’s arguments for preventing school mask mandates. He contends that parents should be able to decide whether their children wear masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When you have a bill of rights, if your individual right as a parent is violated, then you have the ability then to go in and seek vindication. They’re obviously doing the opposite there in Tallahassee, they’re trying to basically nullify the Parents’ Bill of Rights,” DeSantis said, referring to the lawsuit.
But Democrats quickly praised Cooper’s ruling Friday.
“This politically driven power grab (by DeSantis) put the health and safety of millions of Florida’s children, their families and their communities at risk,” Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book, D-Plantation, said in a prepared statement.
news@orlandoweekly.com
¶ DeSantis threatens ‘consequences’ for schools that imposed mask mandates
After Orange County opted to become one of 10 school districts in the state of Florida that are defying the governor’s order and imposing mask mandates, Gov. Ron DeSantis threatened there would be “consequences.”
“Those school districts are violating state law and they are overriding parents’ judgment on this,” DeSantis said at a press conference in the Villages.
DeSantis has granted the state Department of Education the ability to strip funding from schools who require masks to stem the spread of COVID-19. Orange County joined this group amid a massive spike in student cases and protest about unsafe conditions from the local teachers union. Early adopters of mask mandates have already been threatened with funding losses by the state’s education commissioner.
DeSantis was in the Villages to open another antibody treatment clinic. The expensive treatment for people already suffering from COVID-19 has quickly become the governor’s preferred coronavirus mitigation measure. One of DeSantis’ largest donors holds a massive stake in the company that produces these antibody shots.
Recently, a photo of an ill woman lying on the floor of an antibody treatment clinic went viral. Though she reportedly felt much better after the treatment, the too-sick-to-stand woman lying all alone provided a handy visual shorthand for Florida’s handling of the pandemic overall. — Alex Galbraith
¶ AdventHealth’s Central Florida morgues at capacity due to COVID-19 deaths
Central Florida hospital group AdventHealth says their morgues are at capacity due to the overwhelming amount of COVID-19 deaths in the area. According to an email sent to media by AdventHealth, the hospital group has rented cooling units to supplement its own morgues at 10 area hospitals, as their operations have been forced to hold more deceased patients for longer periods of time.
“These coolers are quickly becoming filled also. We believe this backup is due to a throughput slowdown at local funeral homes, which is causing us to hold decedents for a longer period of time,” hospital reps said. —AG
¶ Ultra-conservative Florida sheriff urges people to get vaccinated following deputy’s death
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd is an archconservative who threatened the non-MAGAfied residents of his county with arrest for voting “the wrong way.” Yet even he has seen the light on coronavirus vaccines.
The Polk County sheriff urged Floridians to get vaccinated after 32-year-old PCSO deputy Christopher Broadhead died last week from COVID-19 complications. “This virus is real and it’s deadly and Christopher is the poster child for how deadly it is. He was only 32,” Judd told WFLA. “I have the vaccination. I encourage everyone to get the vaccination that’s eligible. My wife and I got the vaccination on day one when we were eligible.”
PCSO currently has 50 positive cases among its 2,000-member workforce. In spite of this, Judd believes a mandate is a bridge too far.
“I’m a real staunch supporter of people’s individual rights. I wish they would take the vaccine. I’m not going to mandate it. I think that’s government overreach,” he explained.
Judd said that it was sad to see the vaccine become a political issue.
“It’s a sad set of circumstances that from the president on down we politicized this very dangerous disease. Shame on all of them,” Judd said. — AG
