DeSantis Office Fighting to Reimpose No-Mask Mandate in Schools Rule, Standing Up for Parents’ Choice

August 31, 2021 Updated 9:36 A.M. ET

FORT MYERS, FL- Beginning on September 1st, Lee County schoolchildren will be required to wear face coverings in school per a mandate from Superintendent Kenneth Savage. 

The mandate comes days after an activist court struck down DeSantis’ executive order preventing schools from mandating masks in public schools.

DeSantis is expected to appeal the decision to a higher court.

Sources in Tallahassee told Florida’s Conservative Voice that the appeal is going to happen very soon and that other counties who broke DeSantis’ rule were already disciplined by the state. Broward and Alachua Counties were found in violation of the rule and their School Board Members’ salaries were withheld.

The source also said that the governor’s priority is to win the appeal and promptly pursue legal enforcement against other school districts violating the no-mask mandate rule.

Jared Ochs, the Communications Director of the Florida Department of Education remarked, “Unlike several school districts in this state, our Department plans on continuing to follow the rule of law until such time as the Court issues [its] ruling, and subsequent to that ruling, we plan on immediately appealing this decision to the First DCA [District Court of Appeals], from which we will seek to stay the ruling.”

He continued, “We actually began withholding these funds last Thursday, based on the already lawfully executed orders of the State Board of Education and Commissioner Corcoran. Of course, it’s ironic being asked such a question by the media when similar questions have seldom been directed to the several school districts that are operating in violation of written law and preventing children from a free and public education.”

Brendon Leslie contributed to this story.