Joe Gruters, Republican Party of Florida Chair, is located in Sarasota County. AP Photo/Steve Cannon Sarasota becomes first Trump county to defy DeSantis on school masks
TALLAHASSEE - After a marathon meeting, Sarasota County school administrators voted Friday night that students must wear masks to school. This was a blow for Gov. Ron DeSantis is from a heavily Republican-leaning area of the state.
The Sarasotas Board became the sixth Florida board to require masks, and the first GOP-county board to ignore state laws that block local Covid-19 requirements. Local residents and parents protested the decision in large numbers. They told the board that they are disgusted at the medical tyranny and were mad at the board's five-hour meeting. Multiple people were expelled for disrupting the proceedings.
Jane Goodwin, board member, stated that she fears that if this is not done, if this is not pursued, if this is not taken seriously, and if this is not done, then we will make the wrong decision.
Sarasota is a district that has nearly 43,000 students. It also breaks rules set by the DeSantis administration in order to prevent schools from using masks. More than 1,000,000 students are enrolled in Florida schools that have been placed under mask mandates, despite the wishes of the Republican governor. He wants parents to be able to decide what face coverings they wear.
The districts that require students to wear masks at school were Democratic-leaning, voted for President Joe Biden and voted for him until Friday. Sarasota is an exception as it was the first GOP county to have Trump score 54.8 percent of its vote to approve a mandate for masks. Joe Gruters, the Republican Party of Florida Chair, is located in this county.
School leaders in Sarasota said that the recent surge of Covid-19 cases, and the subsequent quarantines, triggered by the Delta variant, is placing a strain on resources, especially in transportation and custodial services. School officials informed the board that the district is being hit with more cases of coronavirus than it can track or contact trace.
Sarasota reported Friday that 247 students had tested positive for Covid-19. According to the district dashboard, there are currently 497 students who have been contact-traced or quarantined as well as 19 staff members.
However, Sarasota Schools Superintendent Brennan Asplen recommended that the board allow students to choose to not wear masks and urged them to be careful not to violate the law.
Bridget Ziegler (the wife of Christian Ziegler who is vice chair of Florida GOP) agreed to join the board. She said that she did not want to separate from the DeSantis administration or open up the district to state sanctions.
Ziegler stated that Ziegler was concerned about us adopting something that is illegal and has spoken out against it.
At Friday's emergency board meeting, the majority of speakers opposed blanket mask mandates and instead advocated for an opt out clause, as required under state law. Some parents pledged not to comply with any mask requirements propounded by the school district.
Shirley Brown, the board chair, showed a clip from Good Morning America that explained the benefits of wearing masks. This prompted someone to shout bull ---- at the screen and was thrown out of the meeting. Brown used her gavel frequently to calm the crowd and stop people cheering on speakers. Brown repeatedly called a recess to calm the crowd.
Moms for Liberty, a parent group opposing mask mandates, described the meeting in a negative light.
The Sarasota School Board required masks. This opened them up to being sanctioned by the state Board of Education. It handed down the first sanctions to the disobedient districts just hours before the vote. The policy in Sarasota calls for the removal of the mask mandate if the county's positivity rate drops below 8 percent for three consecutive day. According to the most recent data from the state Department of Health, the positivity rate in Sarasota was 18.6 percent for the week of August 13.
Broward and Alachua school leaders were given 48 hours by the state board to reverse their mask requirements. Otherwise, the Florida Department of Education will be allowed to slowly bleed the salaries of those who voted for masks.
Last week, the Biden administration stated that school districts could apply federal Covid-19 relief for school budgets that are cut because they require face coverings. This seemed to ease the potential loss of state cash over mandates.
