Ron DeSantis, Florida's Republican governor, had extolled Decree 21-175 as the “constitutional law for parents”. In the dispute over the mask requirement for American schoolchildren at the end of July, he thus enshrined the right of parents in the Sunshine State to decide for themselves whether their offspring should wear mouth and nose protection during class. With the "Parents' Bill of Rights", Governor DeSantis also linked a threat to school administrations. “The Florida Education Officer must use all legal means to ensure that Florida school districts comply with the law. This includes withdrawing federal funds from school administrations that are not willing to cooperate, ”it said in the third paragraph. With Decree 21-175, the governor wanted several counties such as Sarasota,Miami-Dade and Orange, who were planning a mask requirement for the school year 2021/2022 to contain corona infections among the state's nearly 2.8 million students.
Now the “Parents' Bill of Rights” by De Santis has failed. On Friday, a Leon County court ruled against the governor's decree. The presiding judge John Cooper justified the decision with constitutional principles and the self-determination of the individual school administrations, which allows them to show that a mask requirement among students makes sense. In addition, the lawyer referred to the guidelines of the Supreme Health Authority of the United States. "Evidence shows that the mask specifications developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are reasonable and in line with current scientific and medical opinions," said the presiding judge. Especially the delta variant,which has been spreading at breakneck speed in the United States for weeks is more contagious for children than previous variants of the coronavirus.
High numbers of infections in the southeastern United States
After California and Texas, Florida has been one of the states with the most infections for weeks.
In the past week, around 220 residents of the Sunshine State died every day after being infected with the coronavirus; on the weekend before last, more than 23,000 people were infected there in one day.
As the New York Times calculated, the infection rate was almost 30 percent higher than in January, the most recent high in Florida.
In the past, Governor DeSantis, a supporter of former President Donald Trump, had difficulties with masking and corona requirements. When the infection numbers in Florida soared in the spring of 2020, he waived uniform regulations for the state such as curfews and the closure of the beaches. The Republican dismissed regulations for wearing mouth and nose protection as superfluous, as well as compulsory vaccination for doctors and nurses. The decree 21-175, with which he wanted to prevent the mask requirement in schools, turned openly against the "government of Biden". Trump's Democratic successor, in turn, publicly attacked DeSantis and his party colleague Greg Abbott, governor of Texas.
“Only two states, Texas and Florida, are responsible for a third of all new Covid-19 cases in the country. Some governors are unwilling to do the right thing to fight this pandemic, "President Biden accused the two of them a few weeks ago. The Democrat rejected her argument that wearing a mask was a personal decision and not a government requirement. The Ministry of Education is now examining how it can proceed against the mask refusers among the governors.
The decision of the court in Leon County is meanwhile a signal for other states. “We won solidly. The school administrators are now able to protect the students without fear of financial consequences, "said lawyer Charles Gallagher, who represented several parents in the trial last week. Governor DeSantis announced an appeal. The court, the Republican railed, had ruled against the rights of parents and “in favor of elected politicians”.