The masks will continue to be mandatory in the Florida schools: judge annuls order of Governor Ron Desantis

Warning Vertisementby Scott Travisel Sentinel South Florida | AUG 27, 2021AT1: 49 PM

Florida's school districts can impose masks' mandates, a judge has determined, annulling the order of Governor Ron Desantis that says that masks must be optional.

Leon County Circuit Judge, John C.Cooper, put on the side of the parents who affirmed in a lawsuit that the Order of Desantis is unconstitutional.

The ruling will not have an immediate effect on most children in the school districts of southern Florida, which have masks mandates.But it probably means that members of the school board will not have to give up their salaries or face other possible sanctions threatened by state leaders.Broward and Alachua received letters asking for information about the salaries of the members of the school board who voted in favor of the masks' mandates.Other districts were preparing for similar sanctions.

Desantis had argued that it depended on parents, not on school districts.The Department of Health and the State Education Board were put on the side of Desantis, approving and enforcing policies that allow parents to choose not to accept masks' mandates.

Ten school districts decided to challenge the governor and allow it anyway, citing federal orientation and growing cases of COVID-19.

Cooper said that the Order of Desantis "lacks legal authority" and "does not pass the constitutional exam"

The failure occurred on Friday in the case widely seen during a two -hour televised audience.

An appeal is expected and several other legal challenges to the mask of desantis are pending in other courts.

Cooper said his decision depended on the declaration of rights of Florida's parents, a new law that gives parents the right to make medical decisions for their children, but also gives government agencies the ability to make decisions ifThey have a "convincing" reason to do so.

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Desantis, his lawyers and other state educational leaders said that the law gave the governor the ability to prohibit masks mandates.Cooper, however, did not agree and ruled that this point of view could only be adopted by reading a part of the new law.

The "state affirmation is incorrect because the declaration of parents 'rights does not prohibit the masks' mandates of the school board," said Cooper.

The law gives local school boards the ability to adopt rules, such as masks' mandates, if, as it says, their actions are "reasonable", they address an "imperative state interest" and are "closely adapted," said the judge.

The problem was heated when the Broward School Board voted on July 28 to demand that all students, employees and visitors use masks, after new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Centers emerged.

On July 30, Desantis issued an executive order that said that parents should decide if their children use masks at school.A week later, according to its order, the Florida Health Department ruled that parents should choose not to participate in any mask mandate issued by the school.Both the department and the governor cited the declaration of rights of Florida's parents as the basis for their edicts.

Friday's ruling was the first judicial opinion issued in what has become a multiple challenge to the posture of the administration of the masks in schools in schools.It has been applauded by parents who do not want their children to use masks, including several who testified for the State during the trial this week, but criticized by many other parents and educators who think they have undermined security on campus as theCOVID-19 cases.

The parents who sued argued that Desantis's order "harms the safe functioning of schools" and was unconstitutional.They wanted local school boards to decide whether the propagation of the coronavirus in their communities meriting facial masks masks in their public schools.

Since children are too young to be vaccinated, parents said the masks were the best defense against virus and worked better if everyone used them.

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