Florida School Superintendent Explains Why She Continues to Defy DeSantis’s Ban on Mask Mandates

During an quality connected MSNBC, Florida School Superintendent Dr. Carlee Simon explained wherefore she continues to defy Governor Ron DeSantis’s prohibition connected disguise mandates.

“Masks are not a aesculapian device,” she said. “Masks are preventive. They are preventive information devices. It would beryllium conscionable arsenic though we were asking a pupil to deterioration a shot helmet erstwhile they spell up to bat astatine a shot game,” she said. 

“This is to support the information of our students,” she added. “So we are trying to explicate this to the commissioner arsenic good arsenic the politician and this is thing that we request successful bid for classes to tally face-to-face.”

Earlier this month, DeSantis walked backmost his menace to slash the salaries of schoolhouse officials who enforce disguise mandates successful defiance of his enforcement order.

His spokesperson said “activist, anti-science schoolhouse committee members” should dock their ain salaries if the authorities imposes fiscal sanctions connected their districts.

“Those officials should ain their determination — and that means owning the consequences of their decisions alternatively than demanding students, teachers, and schoolhouse unit to ft the measure for their imaginable grandstanding,” said Christina Pushaw, the governor’s property secretary.

“The contented is that … superintendents and schoolhouse committee members are not authorities employees. Therefore, the lone mode the authorities could tailor the fiscal punishment would beryllium to withhold an magnitude of backing adjacent to their salaries,” she added. “In that event, it is imaginable that the officials who are violating the instrumentality could determine to instrumentality backing from different needs successful their ain district, successful bid to wage themselves salaries. It wouldn’t beryllium just to the students, but it would technically beryllium possible.”