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1. Schooled.
That’s what Florida’s school districts offending the state’s law regarding parental opt-outs for school mask mandates were before the Florida Board of Education on Thursday. As was outlined by the Florida Board of Education, Wednesday’s hearing was specifically about whether offending districts Alachua, Brevard, Broward, Duval, Leon, Miami Dade, Orange, and Palm Beach Counties were in compliance with state law by virtue of offering parental choice. Instead, superintendent after superintendent decided to attempt to argue that the CDC and their preferred health experts should supersede the Florida Department of Health and Florida Board of Education’s judgment.
Even though all of those arguments were irrelevant and had been made clear prior to the statements of the school districts. The issue had already been litigated in the courts and found in favor of the state. Since the onset of this debate, I’ve consistently said it’s remarkable to witness the officials responsible for teaching the laws to our children, to be blatantly violating the law. Yesterday was the latest determination that these school districts and these superintendents are in denial, they’re not willing or interested in speaking independent of the school boards themselves to represent the law. Listening to their arguments, they won’t even address directly the matter at hand. Instead, attempting to make legal arguments that have already been settled in the courts. These school districts are violating the law and they continue to undermine the educational interests of our kids.
2. Violating your rights.
I’ve said it multiple times before and I’ll say it again. If you don’t want your child to wear a mask, don’t have them do it. If anyone attempts to take any action against your child, sue them. If anyone makes physical contact with your child as a result of attempting to enforce the mask mandate press charges. It is clear these lawless school districts believe they control our children. In fact, Broward’s Interim Superintendent Vickie Cartwright stated, “parent’s rights can be limited” and attempted to make her most compelling case for doing so.
Miami-Dade School Superintendent Alberto Carvalho made especially interesting comments when he said that the Board of Education rule was oddly allowing one parent to allow for their child to harm another parent’s child. It’s about as outrageous as it gets. He said, "will continue to play out in the courts as well as the court of public opinion." Well, you’ve already lost multiple times in court, but apparently the district’s bent on continuing to waste taxpayer dollars to push on with their unlawful endeavor. Sup. Carvalho also stated it's unfortunate that so much time and so many resources are being used on masks when the issue of addressing the educational needs of our children is so significant due to the pandemic. Well, that’s ironic. Because as I illustrated from the onset of this debate months ago, the science is clear. Every teacher is less effective in teaching with a mask on and every student is less effective at learning with a mask. You’ve literally been breaking the law to implement a mask policy that probably undermines the educational interests of our kids.
3. You were heard.
Shout out to the Moms for Liberty who were well represented during the public comment phase of the hearing. In total 24 of the 30 allocated slots for public comments were taken by those in favor of parental rights and the law. We have momentum and we’re making a difference in restoring parental rights to our schools and for replacing school board members and officials who violate the law. From the attempted intimidation of Merrick Garland to our unlawful school districts. It’s time to get louder together and work to retake our schools from the teachers' unions who drive the agenda and control our school districts.