Don’t make us side with antimaskers, Broward School Board

Those have been the watchwords since the start of this pandemic, though some groups have supplanted it with another phrase: “I did my own research.”

That phrase — shorthand for the anti-intellectualism and distrust of real expertise that has come to define our age — was heard several times at a Broward School Board meeting Tuesday from members of the Broward chapter of the anti-masking group Moms for Liberty.

The meeting was called because, after all the death and misery of the delta wave in Florida, Broward finally achieved less than a 3% positivity rate on COVID tests in each of the last 10 days. This was the key metric — along with a vaccination rate achieved some time ago — by which the board would meet to decide how to go about loosening its school mask mandate.

To that end, the board laid out four options:

1. Keep the current K-12 mask mandate policy in place.

2. Acquiesce to the state’s demands and add a parental opt-out.

3. Follow the county’s guidance and make masks optional unless the county sees a 5% or higher positivity rate for 10 days.

4. Make masks optional for older students, who can get vaccinated, but keep them mandatory for those younger than 12.

The board voted 5-3 for a modified version of Option 4, making masks optional in high school, effective Monday. It happened after fending off opposition by board member Sarah Leonardi, who wanted to preserve the mask mandate for all students.

“Why would we stop doing something that’s working?” Leonardi asked.

By that rationale, one could make the argument for never ending the mask mandate.

Broward’s positivity rate is now in the basement, and Florida now has among the lowest daily COVID cases per capita in the U.S. Given those metrics, interim school superintendent Dr. Vickie Cartwright recommended Option 3, “using the standards that this board has been using all along, and we should not deviate from that at this time.”

Follow the science, in other words.

And yet, despite holding out against the vocal minority from groups like Moms for Liberty, Leonardi seemed ready to fold to parents who insisted the mask mandate remain in place for the foreseeable future.

Board member Debbi Hixon noted that the “majority of emails are asking us to continue with the mask mandate.”

While the anti-maskers showed up in person to the meeting to voice their opposition, Leonardi noted that emails supporting the mandate outnumbered opponents 139-38, but that opposition was partially generated by Leonardi.

A post on the Broward Democratic

Party’s Facebook page signed “In solidarity” by Leonardi (who, like all school board members, runs nonpartisan) reads, “Tomorrow (10⁄26 at 1:30 p.m.) the School Board of Broward County is being asked to rescind their mask mandate and lift quarantine guidelines to leave the decision to mask and quarantine up to parental choice. … Some school board members will be willing to lift these safety policies and we must encourage them to keep expert-based guidelines in place.”

The post urges Democrats to write to the school board and demand the mandate be kept in place.

We have previously editorialized in support of mask mandates in Broward and Palm Beach County schools. We applaud the boards for having the fortitude to stand up to our bullying governor and defy his absurd demand that COVID be passed around freely among our schoolchildren.

But we are serious about following the science. And if the science dictates that masks are no longer necessary, the board should absolutely allow kids to be kids again. Sometimes, it’s easier to stand up to those with whom you disagree than to rethink your own position due to a change in circumstances.

“We have used a good, common-sense approach here in Broward County and should continue,” said board member Ann Murray in arguing for Option 3. “The reality is there’s nothing that requires those vaccines to be in place for under 12. We had indicated as a district that we were looking for certain levels to be reached and age levels were not going to be a factor.”

We understand the logic behind the board’s decision, that vaccines may be available for younger children in a few weeks, so this buys time. But school boards should heed the guidelines they have set for themselves, not give in to fear of a virus that, as of this moment, is not as grave a threat as it has been.

The Broward County School Board invested a great deal of its political capital in this mask mandate, defying DeSantis and his heavy-handed education commissioner and securing aid from Washington. It’s a sign of reason and level-headedness that the board is willing to ease off the mandate now. But once elementary and junior-high children can be vaccinated, should positivity rates remain low, the school board should be prepared to drop the mandates for all.

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.