Schools decision nearing for parents
Second suit details danger of reopening, pushes for delay
Central Florida parents are facing a Friday deadline to decide how they want their children to learn in the fall as a second lawsuit seeks to delay the reopening of public schools.
On Monday morning, Florida’s teachers union filed the suit against Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Florida Department of Education and other officials, calling to stop the “reckless and unsafe reopening” of Florida public schools.
The virus is surging out of control and the governor needs to accept the reality of how dangerous starting schools in-person again could be, said Fedrick Ingram, president of the Florida Education Association.
“Everyone wants schools to reopen, but we don’t want to begin in-person teaching, face an explosion of cases and sickness, then be forced to return to distance learning,” Ingram said in a release on Monday.
The lawsuit, filed in state circuit court in Miami, is joined by educators in Orange, Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
As criticism of reopening schools grows, parents in Orange, Seminole and Lake County have until Friday to let their school districts know what their choice is for schooling in the fall. Osceola County’s deadline was July 15, and the district encourages parents to select an option ASAP if they haven’t already.
Orange County’s public schools will offer both
on-campus and online options as the state demanded, the Orange County School Board decided Friday.
But the country’s eighthlargest school district is seeking a waiver from the requirement — ordered by state Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran — that traditional, five-day, in-person classes begin next month.
Corcoran on Monday, in a tweet, called the lawsuit “frivolous.”
He said the order “did not order any new directives regarding the requirements of schools to be open, it simply created new innovative options for families to have the CHOICE to decide what works best for the health and safety of their student and family,” Corcoran said in a statement.
Last week, Corcoran said in-person instruction is best for kids, and he would not alter his order.
“They absolutely should have that option, and it will not come out of the emergency order,” Corcoran said, speaking at the State Board of Education meeting in Hillsborough County.
Orange’s reopening plan is similar to those already adopted by the Lake, Osceola and Seminole county school districts.
Sarah Lemieux, 44, of Winter Park is the mother of a 10-year-old and 6-year-old who had a heart transplant as a baby and is immunocompromised.
Her children will be taking classes virtually because she can’t send her youngest due to health concerns and she doesn’t want her eldest contracting it or being a carrier of COVID-19.
“We really don’t have much of a choice,” Lemieux said.
She said she is concerned about how social distancing will be implemented and teachers potentially being laid off if not enough students take inperson classes.
“It’s scary and confusing for everyone,” she said.
DeSantis on Monday reiterated his stance in favor of schools opening for inperson classes next month. He said students could fall behind if in-person options aren’t available and noted low-income students might not have reliable access to laptops or internet and would miss out on free lunches and other social services provided by schools. But at the same time he also tried to distance himself from Corcoran’s executive order.
“First of all I didn’t give any executive order, that was the Department of Education,” DeSantis said during a press conference in Orlando. “They have a board; they do different things. My view is, is we’ve got to work together. I want to work with all the school districts.’
Still, DeSantis stressed the need for in-person classes as an option, but said accommodations need to be made for teachers and other school personnel with underlying conditions or who may be at greater risk of complications if they contract COVID-19.
“If you have somebody that may have an underlying health issue, they absolutely need to be given the option, maybe they teach more virtually, maybe they take a sabbatical,” DeSantis said. “But those folks who are higher risk you absolutely need to have accommodations for, without question.”
The issue is being intensely debated in Central Florida and nationwide — teachers in both Seminole and Orange counties staged protests, saying the reopening puts their lives in danger.
Orange plans to open on Aug. 21; Seminole says its opening day is Aug. 17. Lake and Osceola plan to start Aug. 24.
James Barone, 38, who lives in east Orange County, said his 7-year-old will attend second grade through Orange County Virtual School.
He’s concerned about the logistics of ensuring the safety and well-being of teachers, faculty and students on campus.
“I can’t go to court, I can’t see the governor, I can’t go to the DMV,” he said. “But they want to send children back to school. It’s an incredible contradiction.”
He said he supports the lawsuit filed in Orange County on Sunday against DeSantis and other officials to stop the reopening of public schools, following concerns from teachers, students and parents about the risk of catching COVID-19.
His son will learn virtually, but he and other parents wonder how well young children will respond to virtual learning and comprehending the material.
“My son is 7; he can hardly sit through an episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and he likes that show,” Barone said. “What makes anyone think he’s going to sit through eight hours of online education?”
Nicholas Anderson, 35, an English teacher at Freedom High School and representative of Orange County’s Classroom Teachers Association, said he recommends parents of middle- and high-schoolers take OCPS LaunchEd@Home option, which offers live, online lessons that follow a traditional schedule.
Although Orange’s school plan was approved, he believes there’s still uncertainty regarding the return to classrooms and normalcy. Nobody is sure what will actually happen, Anderson said.
“It’s making people have a hard time picking a decision when they’re not entirely sure where this is ending,” he said.
Parents in Orange, Seminole and Lake can go to their school district’s reopening section of their websites by Friday to register for an option for fall. Since the Osceola deadline has passed, parents in that school district must contract their school immediately to give their choice.