DeSantis to issue executive order invalidating mask mandates in Florida schools

(The Center Square) – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is not going to call lawmakers to Tallahassee for a special session to ban mask mandates in state schools.

The governor will do so himself, he said Friday, by issuing an executive order reiterating parents’ rights under a new state law to determine what is best for their children.

“If a parent really feels that (wearing a mask) is something that’s important for their kid, we’re not stopping that,” DeSantis said during a news conference at a Cape Coral restaurant.

“They absolutely have every right to equip their students with whatever types of mask that they want, and have them go to school, if they believe that that’s a protection that’s important for their children,” he added. “I think that’s the fairest way to do it.”

As COVID-19 cases increase – Florida’s 17,589 new cases reported Wednesday was the highest single-day count since January; 7,000 are hospitalized statewide; and three counties and one school board have imposed mask and vaccine mandates.

Citing July’s 1,780% increase in new COVID-19 cases in Florida, Miami-Dade, Orange and Broward county re-imposed indoor mask requirements in county buildings this week.

But since the local orders aren’t mandates that restrict business operations or impose penalties, they don’t violate Senate Bill 2006, adopted by lawmakers during their 2021 session and signed into law by DeSantis last month.

SB 2006 gives the governor authority to invalidate local emergency measures installed during the pandemic, including mask mandates and business restrictions.

The Broward County School Board this week became Florida’s first school district to reinstate mask mandates for students when school begins in two weeks. The Miami-Dade School Board is pondering a similar rule.

Unlike the county orders, any school district mask mandate violates SB 2006, DeSantis said, and he will invalidate them by issuing an executive order that invokes another new law.

The Parents Bill of Rights Act gives the governor authority to issue an emergency rule “protecting the rights of parents to make this decision about wearing masks for their for their children,” he said.

The Parents’ Bill of Rights Act, House Bill 241, sponsored by Rep. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, was adopted along party lines, advancing through the House April 1 in a 78-37 vote, in the Senate April 22 in a 24-15 tally and signed Into law by DeSantis on June 18.

Proponents said HB 241 doesn’t accord parents rights they don’t already have, but requires those rights be “enumerated” in state law and spelled out – especially by school districts.

Opponents said the law makes it easier for parents to opt-out from vaccinating children and imposes arch-conservative values in schools by blocking access to “objectionable curriculum” and information about sexually-transmitted diseases.

While DeSantis said he will issue an executive order to immediately empower parents to ignore mask mandates imposed by school boards and public health officials, calling lawmakers to a special session is not off the shelf.

The governor Thursday had separate phone calls with Senate President Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, and House Speaker Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, and met with legislative staffers, plotting the state’s response – potentially including a special session – to anticipated school guidance from the federal Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC).

“If you listen to some of the stuff that’s being percolated around the CDC, there’s a movement to try to impose more restrictions on the American people,” DeSantis said Friday. “And I just want to say in Florida, there will be no lockdowns. There will be no school closures. There will be no restrictions or mandates in the state of Florida.”

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