With DeSantis rebuked and child COVID cases soaring, schools must act to protect students
https://www.ocala.com/story/opinion...ould-prompt-schools-protect-covid/5662045001/
Florida’s public school districts have the right — at least for now — to insist that students, teachers and others on campus wear masks and take other precautions against COVID.
Friday, a circuit judge in Tallahassee
ruled that Gov. Ron DeSantis overstepped his legal boundaries when he attempted to block mask requirements in local schools. It was the right call.
Florida’s parental-rights law grants a clear exception for local rules crafted to keep students safe, and the danger is already coming into focus. Last week, 17.5% of the positive COVID tests statewide were for children under 12 — too young to be vaccinated.
School districts that haven’t already implemented mask requirements should summon the courage to take advantage of this opportunity. If they need more evidence on the benefits of doing so, consider this statistic reported by WOFL-FOX 35 Orlando. In Broward County, which started school under a mask mandate, there were eight positive cases as of Aug. 20 — a number that dropped to six on Aug. 23.
In Orange County, which didn’t have a mask requirement the first day of school, there were 207 cases on Aug. 20 and 382 on Aug. 23. Orange County officials didn’t need to see any more: Their mandate went into effect Monday.
In both counties, school officials are certain to hear from people insisting that the sharp increase in student cases won’t translate into serious health risks for students. But there’s no way they can be sure.
So far, child hospitalizations and deaths from COVID seem relatively low, and we certainly hope it stays that way. But local health officials say the delta variant is more likely to make children sick. Even if officials act this week, they may see the number of children hospitalized for COVID — and, eventually, killed by it — rise inexorably over the next few weeks.
It was curious that DeSantis chose public schools as a battleground. The governor has battered away at anti-pandemic measures for months now, issuing orders that stripped local officials’ authority to enact mask mandates, limit communal gatherings and enact other protections.
The governor’s mantra, all along, was that he was defending Florida’s economy. That stance came with an ugly subtext that valued money over human life, but at least it was consistent.
It’s hard to see, however, how the governor squares that philosophy with his attack on school-based protections. There’s no valid argument that connects Florida’s business climate to the presence or absence of a mask on the face of a fifth-grader, outside the negligible economic boost achieved by the sale of child-sized masks.
The “parental choice” argument doesn’t make much sense either; the governor's order quashed the choices of the large number of Floridian parents who would prefer to keep their children safe from a potentially deadly disease.
Those who argue that kids won’t keep their masks on may have the weakest argument of all. Kids have no concept of their own mortality: They eat dirt. They undo their seatbelts. They pick up guns. That doesn’t lessen the responsibility of adults to keep them safe — in fact, it magnifies it.
DeSantis, who has young children of his own, should understand that. Florida’s children deserve protection, and the governor should stop fighting local school officials who are trying to provide it.
