DeSantis Files Appeal to Reinstate Mask Opt-Out Option in Schools While Legal Battle Rages

September 9, 2021 Updated 6:36 P.M. ET

TALLAHASSEE, FL- Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ office has filed an emergency motion to the First District Court of Appeal to prevent school districts from forcing children to wear masks who have opted out.

The motion was filed just hours after a Leon County circuit judge ruled that forced-masking may continue while the legal battle plays out. 

DeSantis’ office is appealing the prior decision from the same Leon County circuit judge who struck down DeSantis’ executive order protecting parents’ rights as ‘unconstitutional.’

Regarding the appeal denial from the judge, the emergency motion argued that “the trial court should not have substituted its own health policy preferences or risk assessments for those of the Governor or, more importantly, the State Health Officer and Surgeon General.”

“According to its plain terms, the Parents’ Bill of Rights limits governmental authority and protects the inherent rights of parents. See §§ 1014.01–.06, Fla. Stat. Thus, the Governor could not possibly have violated the Parents’ Bill of Rights by protecting parents’ rights. Most assuredly, the Parents’ Bill of Rights does not grant any authority to local school districts that did not previously exist,” it continued.

There is very little scientific agreement that schoolchildren ought to be required to wear masks, and many recommendations have questionable effectiveness.

Randi Weingarten, the President of the American Federation of Teachers, a large teachers’ union, has been weaponizing children and deaths of the unvaccinated during the COVID-19 pandemic to attack DeSantis. Weingarten fought to keep Florida schools closed last year.