Florida Governor
On Friday, Judge
The Tallahassee-based judge barred Florida officials from enforcing the governor’s ban on mask mandates in schools, saying evidence from a four-day trial showed DeSantis had taken the law out of context. The statute, signed by DeSantis in July, says government agencies “may not infringe on the fundamental rights of a parent to direct the upbringing, education, health care, and mental health of his or her minor child,” Cooper said, reading from its text before ruling.
“That’s where the reading has been stopped by the defendants in this case,” the judge said. “Here’s what the rest of it says.”
The law goes on to say that the state can’t infringe parents’ rights unless it can show that a policy “is reasonable and necessary to achieve a compelling state interest” and that the rule is “narrowly tailored and is not otherwise served by a less restrictive means.”
“It doesn’t ban mask mandates at all,” Cooper said. “The plain reading of the statute is clear.”
Whether to require masks at school amid a surge of coronavirus cases has become
Stopping the Spread
Cooper also said evidence presented by concerned parents during the trial contradicted DeSantis’s views that face masks were ineffective in stopping the spread of the deadly virus and that making kids wear them is akin to “child abuse.”
“Evidence demonstrates that face mask policies that follow CDC guidance are at this point in time reasonable and consistent with the best medical and scientific opinions in this country at this time,” said Cooper, of Florida’s Second Judicial Circuit, referring to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
He said parents can still challenge the mask mandates on their own but that school boards have a right to demonstrate that such policies are reasonable under the Parents’ Bill of Rights.
“We won soundly,” plaintiffs’ attorney Charles Gallagher said after the trial. “We are proud of our plaintiffs standing up for what is right. School boards now can protect their students without fear of financial consequences.”
DeSantis had threatened to block pay for school superintendents who defied him.
In a statement, the governor called the ruling “incoherent” and vowed to appeal it. He said the judge had ruled “against parents’ rights and their ability to make the best educational and medical decisions for their family” and instead found “in favor of elected politicians.”
“This ruling was made with incoherent justifications, not based in science and facts -- frankly not even remotely focused on the merits of the case presented,” DeSantis said.
The decision is a blow to DeSantis, a Republican seen as a possible presidential candidate in 2024. In July, he signed an executive order to “protect parents’ freedom to choose whether their children will wear masks.” Several school districts flouted the order.
Similar court fights are underway in several other states, including Texas and Oklahoma.
Some of Florida’s biggest school districts have begun to weigh in on the ruling, including in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, where schools had been openly defying the mask mandate ban.
“In essence Judge Cooper confirmed the legality of the protocols adopted by our school system just last week -- protocols that serve to prevent the spread of Covid-19, protocols that protect the health and well-being and provide a safe and secure learning environment in schools in our community,” said Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, who oversees the state’s largest district.
The parents suing DeSantis argued he recklessly banned mask rules even as the delta variant of the coronavirus was spreading in Florida far faster than a year ago, when students were required to wear masks. Health experts also said mask rules are less effective when they aren’t mandatory.
The writing was on the wall for DeSantis’s ban early on Friday, when the judge kicked off the hearing by saying the U.S. has a long history of restricting personal rights when they come into conflict with the safety of others. He used examples like the right to drink alcohol versus the choice to drive drunk, and the right to free speech versus the act of slandering others or yelling “fire” in a crowded theater.
Michael Abel, a lawyer for the governor, argued during the trial that face masks cause anxiety and depression in children and prevent bonding between students and teachers.
“Positive emotions such as laughing and smiling become less recognizable, and negative emotions get amplified,” he said.
Ultimately, Cooper said the state had failed to present evidence backing those claims.
In closing arguments on Thursday, attorney Craig Whisenhunt, for the parents, said the nation had divided itself into factions that “cannot agree what is common sense.” Whisenhunt said Florida parents had submitted to children attending schools with metal detectors and “bulletproof backpacks” for safety reasons, yet some now balk at standard health measures in a pandemic.
“We teach kids to cover their mouths when they cough and sneeze,” Whisenhunt said. “But there’s a faction opposed to a cloth mask that may save lives.”
The
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