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Florida's biggest school districts vote to defy DeSantis on masks

19 August 2021
Dan Ackermann

After record-shattering daily COVID-19 counts, school boards in Florida's Hillsborough and Miami-Dade Counties held emergency meetings Wednesday and voted to again require face coverings on campuses.

Why it matters: The districts are the nation's fourth- and seventh-largest — representing more than 600,000 students.

State of play: Hillsborough reported Wednesday that there were 1,840 confirmed cases among students and staff, and that 10,000 students and staff were quarantined.

A big change: Students had been allowed to opt out of wearing a mask at school if they filled out a simple form. The measure approved Wednesday now requires that a certified health care provider document the medical or psychological need to be unmasked.

  • The policy goes into effect immediately and lasts for 30 days.

Yes, but: Lots of questions about the political and financial repercussions for defying DeSantis remain.

  • His administration had threatened to dock the salaries of superintendents and school board members who don't allow parents to opt out, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

What they're saying: The board listened to nearly two hours of public comments that exposed the intense political nature of the issue, and a depressing level of misinformation.

  • One man apologized to the parents who have lost children to COVID and then audaciously told them that masks would not have prevented their children’s deaths.
  • Others, who called themselves "patriots" several times, mocked masks as "face diapers" and said they refused to live in fear.

The other side: "It would be incredible to see the same number of people who talked about oppression today speak up for our Black and Latino students," said board member Karen Perez, pointing out that those are the most at risk populations.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.