Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper on Thursday released a written ruling that said Gov. Ron DeSantis overstepped his constitutional authority in a July 30 executive order that sought to prevent school districts from requiring students to wear masks. Cooper issued an injunction barring the enforcement of DeSantis’ order.
Schools
Flagler Schools Have 3rd Highest Covid Infection Rate Among 38 Florida Districts Reporting Figures; Masked Districts Fare Better
The Flagler County school district has the third-highest rate of Covid infections among students and staff out of 38 Florida school districts that are reporting their Covid numbers since the resumption of the school year less than four weeks ago, a FlaglerLive analysis finds. There is still no “appetite” for changing course and adopting a mask mandate, according to the school board member who tried enacting one two weeks ago, though data points to a direct correlation between masks and lower infection rates in Florida districts.
$2.3 Billion in Federal School Aid Still Sits Unused Because Florida Hasn’t Sent In Spending Plan
Florida is one of only five states that has not submitted a state plan for Covid relief to the U.S. Department of Education, holding up billions in federal funds to help the Florida education system recover from the impacts of Covid-19 in schools.
UNF Launches 2021 MedNexus Innovation Challenge for Palm Coast Area High School Students
The Mednexus Innovation Challenge is a competition that encourages high school students to participate in designing ideas for the future of healthcare through purpose-driven education and to apply innovation, science and technology to solve real state/local healthcare challenges.
Will More School Districts Impose Mask Mandates Following Leon Court Ruling on Mask Policies?
A court ruling vindicated the mask policies of 10 Florida school districts that have mandated masks in schools without parental opt-outs. Now, the court ruling, in a verbal format, could lead to other districts adopting similar policies because the court determined that these kinds of mask mandates are legal, according to the judge.
Judge Rules DeSantis Had No Authority to Ban School Mask Mandates or Punish School Boards That Adopt Masking
Judge John Cooper of the 2nd Judicial Circuit Court of Florida ruled today that Gov. Ron DeSantis had no legal authority under the recently-enacted Parental Bill of Rights to prohibit local school boards from adopting mask mandates that did not include opt-out provisions. The judge found DeSantis’s order “capricious” and not based in evidence, but rather based on an incomplete reading of the Bill of Rights.
Flagler Schools Covid Cases in 3 Weeks Exceed All of Last Year’s; County Shatters Weekly Record; Florida Adds 1,727 Deaths
The county recorded 936 confirmed cases of covid in the week ending today, breaking last week’s record by over 200 cases. The health department is unable to conduct systematic contact tracing because it’s overwhelmed by the numbers. As of Thursday, 155 Flagler County residents had died of covid since the beginning of the pandemic, 41 of them in the last four weeks.
In Maskless Flagler, We’re All Covid’s Sitting Ducks
Flagler County is in the worst public health crisis it has known in its history, with at least 10 covid deaths a week as many school infections in 3 weeks as all of last year combined, yet the debate remains immobilized by a war on masks that defies science and daily grim realities.
Half of Florida’s Students Now in Districts Defying DeSantis Ban on Mask Mandates as Judge Readies to Rule
Circuit Judge John Cooper said he was “still wrestling” with the “sophisticated legal issues” presented in the case and promised to issue a verbal decision at 10 a.m. Friday. DeSantis on Thursday promised to appeal if Cooper does not side with the state.
Florida House Rep. Sabatini Threatens Flagler School Board of Legal Action in Letter Laced in Fabrications Over Covid Rules
Florida House Rep. Anthony Sabatini wrote a letter to Flagler Superintendent Cathy Mittelstadt and the school board today falsely claiming Indian Trails Middle School students are “being deprived of their right to a public school education,” and building on fabrications about the illegal quarantining of a child at Indian Trails Middle School that began pinballing around local social media pages last week.