Parents protest masks in school
Palm Beach County reports 1,346 students test positive; 5,163 sent home due to exposure
The fierce debate over masks in school heated up Monday, with more districts requiring them, more students sent home for COVID exposure and parents in Palm Beach County protesting that their children can’t go to school without covering their faces.
Dozens of parents showed up outside the school district’s administration building to protest the new rule, as 5,163 students stayed home from school in Palm Beach County after they may have been exposed to the coronavirus.
Palm Beach County schools reported that 1,346 students have tested positive for COVID-19 of Monday. The figure represents an average of 103 new student cases per day since the district began recording on Aug. 10, the first day of school.
The county initially allowed students to opt out of mask requirements with a note from their parents — as the state
requires — but eliminated the opt-out option after COVID cases soared.
Broward County reported 46 students with positive COVID tests as of Aug. 18, the first day of school. That’s an average of two new cases among students per day since the district began recording on Aug. 1.
The district also reported 372 teachers with COVID-19, but the situation in Broward is difficult to assess because the district updates its data only twice a week — Tuesdays and Thursdays — rather than daily as Palm Beach County does.
A total of 1,271 students stayed home from the first day of school due to possible coronavirus exposure, the district said. As of Friday, 1,630 students were staying home.
Broward County requires students to wear a mask unless they have a medical condition verified by a doctor. All three districts in South Florida now have the same policy, in conflict with the state’s orders.
More schools have taken the same position. Sarasota County imposed a mask mandate over the weekend, and Leon County, including Tallahassee, requires masks for students in K-8 — with no opt-out from parents.
Any district in Florida that implements those rules faces sanctions from the state Board of Education, which has already informed Broward County that it will withhold an amount of funding equal to the salaries of School Board members.
Broward has refused to back down.
In Miami-Dade County, where school started Monday, the school district’s COVID dashboard showed one student and 39 teachers had tested positive since the district began recording on Aug. 18.
In a briefing about the first day of school, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said no more than three parents had an issue with masks out of more than 350,000 students.
“It’s an imposition but a necessary one, and one based on the advice of our medical experts we will be revisiting every single week,” he said.
“That’s an extremely high level of compliance and understanding, and I certainly am very appreciative for that. Kids were happy. Parents were happy dropping kids off. They’ve been at home for a long time.”
That was not the case in Palm Beach County, where dozens of parents protested the mask mandate on Monday.
Mayra Jolie, an attorney and Coral Gables resident who drove up to Palm Beach County to protest the mask mandate, said she stood her ground when police told protesters to back off from the school district building to the sidewalk.
Many in attendance said about 17 police officers chased all but one in the group away around 12:15 p.m. after threatening to have them arrested for unlawful assembly or trespassing.
Jolie refused to leave, challenging police by staying in place for a half-hour or so.
“I said: ‘I’ll go on my own terms,’ ” she said of the threat to go to jail. “I challenged them to take me.”
Jolie, who is from the Dominican Republic, likened mask wearing to genocide, though she could not provide any scientific data that says masks kill. “Children cannot breathe,” she said. “If we restrict our children from breathing, that is killing our children.”
Jolie said she has directed her 17-year-old son, a senior at a specialized school for youths considering a career in policing, not to wear a mask in school. “Parents are the last line of defense,” she said.
Eleven-year-old Aubriana Johnson wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “Masks are slavery.”
Aubriana’s mother, Angelique Contreras, pulled her daughter from the school system at the start of the year. Aubriana is now being homeschooled. “I want to go back to school, but I don’t want to wear a mask,” she said. “Masks are muzzles.”
Contreras said she trusts her daughter’s immune system to fight off COVID and other diseases. Over the years, when asked to provide proof of childhood vaccines, Contreras said she has gone to the local health department to get an exemption form in place of shot records.
“There’s a risk to everything . ... We’re not trying to endanger,” she said. “We are trying to protect our child just as [pro-mask parents] are trying to protect their children.”