Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) made his intentions clear Tuesday for children returning to school in the fall semester during a bill signing ceremony.
DeSantis said children do not have to be forced to wear a mask when he was asked about the school districts and their returning protocols from the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.
On Tuesday, he said, “These kids do not need to be wearing these masks, okay?”
“I’m sorry, they don’t,” he emphasized.
Desantis, whom Democrats have constantly bombarded in the media about his response to the pandemic, said, “We need to be able to let them be kids and let them act normally, and that’s what should be the case in the fall [and] throughout the school year.”
He also said, “Our direction is fairly simple: have a normal school year,” News4Jax reported.
Reportedly, masks are still requirred for children in Clay, Duval, Nassau, Putnam, and St. Johns counties and are optional for children in Baker, Bradford, Columbia, and Union counties.
Last week DeSantis signed two Executive Orders that were meant to suspend all of the Chinese coronavirus emergency orders issued by local governments in Florida:
One of the governor’s orders, Executive Order 21-101, effective July 1, mandates that “any emergency order issued by a political subdivision due to the COVID-19 emergency which restricts the rights or liberties of individuals or their businesses is invalidated.”
The other order, Executive Order 21-102, suspended “all local COVID-19 restrictions and mandates on individuals and businesses” and went into effect immediately. The Department of Education said in an email that questions had arisen about the impacts of the orders on school districts.
Recently, Florida State Rep. Anthony Sabatini (R) sent a letter to DeSantis requesting an Executive Order to suspend the power of School Boards to mask children. Sabatini believes there is “one political subdivision” in the Sunshine State.
Additionally, he called the state’s schoolboards’ policy of continuing to force children in school to wear masks “cruel, oppressive, and misguided.”
DeSantis has also continued to see positive favorability numbers in the polls, despite being constantly criticized by the radical leftist media on his handling of the Chinese coronavirus.
Despite the constant attempts to attack, DeSantis has seen 34 percent holding a “very” or “somewhat” favorable view of his job performance and 32 percent holding a “very” or “somewhat” unfavorable view. Notably, one-third of respondents said they “didn’t know.”