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TALLAHASSEE, Florida (LifeSiteNews) — After a series of Florida school districts violated Gov. Ron DeSantis’ executive order banning schools from mandating masks for school-children, he is pushing back.
A statement released by the Republican governor’s office suggested that the paychecks of defiant admins may be frozen if they force children to mask up for the 2021-2022 school year in spite of DeSantis’ executive order explicitly banning the mandates.
As reported by the Daily Wire, authority rests with the State Board of Education “to withhold the paychecks of any school administrators that choose to buck DeSantis’ order against school mask mandates.”
The report notes that stalling paychecks to administrators and school board members might just be a first step. If districts fail to comply with the directive giving parents the exclusive authority to decide whether their children will wear masks, DeSantis’ office could impose “harsher financial penalties,” including “stripping entire districts of state funding.”
A statement released by the governor’s office to CBS Miami describes DeSantis’ priorities as: “protecting parents’ rights” as well as “ensuring that every student has access to a high-quality education that meets their unique needs.”
According to the statement, “With respect to enforcing any financial consequences for noncompliance of state law regarding these rules and ultimately the rights of parents to make decisions about their children’s education and health care decisions, it would be the goal of the State Board of Education to narrowly tailor any financial consequences to the offense committed.”
“For example,” the statement continued, “the State Board of Education could move to withhold the salary of the district superintendent or school board members, as a narrowly tailored means to address the decision-makers who led to the violation of law.”
The governor’s office went on to observe that “[e]ducation funding is intended to benefit students first and foremost, not systems.”
PETITION UPDATE (8/27/2020)
Thank you for continuing to SIGN and SHARE this petition, which asks policymakers at all levels of government to reverse mandatory mask orders within their borders.
Facebook has restored the share link for this petition, saying that the decision to block it was a 'mistake...'
Please share with your Facebook friends, but we should all take heed of this warning: when an organization or individuals have to beg, plead and cajole just to express objective truths, it may be time to start looking for other social networking platforms.
Facebook needs to treat its users with respect, no matter their political persuasion. Moreover, Facebook needs to treat objective reality and facts with more respect.
One-size-fits-all oppressive government mask mandates must stop!
Healthy adults and children should not be forced - by the state - to wear masks when the risk of infection is low and the benefit of wearing a mask is highly questionable.
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PETITION UPDATE (8/25/2020)
Facebook is actively censoring this petition, saying that some people find it 'abusive.'
How anyone could find alternate facts about oppressive mask mandates 'abusive' is incredible...that is, impossible to believe.
This is exactly the kind of censorship which Big Tech is getting a bad reputation for.
The fact that Facebook calls differing opinion and objective reality "abusive" says a lot about Facebook and their agenda to silence reason and logic, not just conservatives and Christians.
But, people are more intelligent than Facebook give them credit for.
And, the more this continues, the more reasonable people will look alternate platforms to share their thoughts and connect with their friends and family. The more that happens, the less revenue Facebook will generate.
All of us have a decision to make, and the time is coming where we might have to tell our Facebook friends that we are moving to another platform.
We are encouraging people to continue SIGNING this petition and SHARING it via other platforms such as Parler and Gab, and to share the link below with your family and friends on Whatsapp, Telegram, Threema and Signal.
Thank you!
________________________________________________________________________________________
One-size-fits-all oppressive government mask mandates must stop!
Healthy adults and children should not be forced - by the state - to wear masks when the risk of infection is low and the benefit of wearing a mask is highly questionable.
Please SIGN this petition which asks policymakers at all levels of government to reverse mandatory mask mandates within their borders.
Public health policies should be based on science and logic, not on the type of political posturing and virtue-signaling which led Joe Biden to recently call for a national mask mandate.
And, public health policies certainly shouldn't lead to a situation where more people could become sick.
But, that is exactly what these mandatory mask mandates are doing.
Here are four inconvenient facts about masks:
1) Masks** are largely ineffective at stopping the transmission of viruses.
The vast majority of masks worn by the public are made from material which cannot filter-out viruses because virus particles are too small to catch or obstruct. Wearing cloth masks to stop a virus is like putting a bee in a bird cage to keep it from flying away.
Wearing a mask for long periods of time ensures that the wearer has a warm and moist receptacle around his or her mouth, on which viruses and bacteria can land and accumulate.
Thus, masks are actually likely to have little effect in stopping the spread of COVID-19 acting as a barrier, but could actually make things worse acting as a receptacle.
2) Mandates which call for masks to be worn outdoors are both absurd and oppressive.
3) There are clearly documented hazards of wearing masks for long periods of time.
4) And, since school is on everyone's mind...
Notwithstanding the above information on the ineffectiveness of most masks against viruses, we don't know if asymptomatic children can even transmit the virus.
But, it was a reported in an article in the July 21, 2020 Uk Times that: "There has been no recorded case of a teacher catching the coronavirus from a pupil anywhere in the world, according to one of the UK government's leading scientific advisers."
And, we also know that children are extremely unlikely to get seriously ill or die from COVID infections. In any case, children cannot possibly be expected to wear a mask properly in a way that would cut transmission.
There are still a lot of unknowns about COVID-19, but we have grown in our understanding of this disease since the beginning of the crisis.
The knowledge we have gained should allow government and health authorities to make more nuanced policies than the current one-size-fits-all mask mandates.
Where are the legislative hearings in county commissions, and state, provincial or federal legislatures before these drastic actions are mandated? Where are the open and transparent debates among experts that provide our representatives with the necessary information to make good policy decisions?
The real pandemic is the panic and the resulting tyranny that is being caused by dictatorial governors, corporate media and the monopolistic Big Tech.
The truth is that COVID-19 is like a bad cold for most people; this is not ebola or the plague.
Of course, the very elderly and those with serious health conditions should take precautions or be quarantined, but the rest of society should begin the long process of returning to normality.
The frenzy to force everyone to wear a mask, at all times, has gone beyond all comprehension, and goes against science and logic.
Please SIGN this petition which asks policymakers at all levels of government to reverse any mandatory mask order within the borders of their county, state, province, or country.
Thank you!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
'Explosion in mandatory masking isn’t driven by science, but fear', PART I - https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/explosion-in-mandatory-masking-isnt-driven-by-science-but-fear
'Explosion in mandatory masking isn’t driven by science, but fear', PART II - https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/explosion-in-mandatory-masking-isnt-driven-by-science-but-fear-part-ii
OSHA Document on Surgical Masks and Respirators stating that surgical masks do NOT prevent airborne particles (e.g. viruses) from being inhaled - https://www.osha.gov/Publications/OSHA3219.pdf
'PETER HITCHENS: Face masks turn us into voiceless submissives - and it’s not science forcing us to wear them, it’s politics' - https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8537489/PETER-HITCHENS-Face-masks-turn-voiceless-submissives.html
**Here, we are referring to the masks worn by the vast majority of the public, not to specialist masks or respirator-type masks.
***Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com
On August 12, the Miami Herald published a story claiming that DeSantis had “softened” on the issue because the governor lacks direct control over educator pay, quoting the governor’s press secretary Christian Pushaw as saying, “[t]hose officials should own their decision — and that means owning the consequences of their decisions rather than demanding students, teachers, and school staff to foot the bill for their potential grandstanding.”
The next day, Pushaw took to Twitter to blast the Herald and other outlets for “absolutely fake news,” declaring that the governor’s position has not changed and explaining that “withhold[ing] state funding in the exact amount of those officials’ salaries” was always the mechanism by which the penalty would be implemented.
Why are @Newsweek @MiamiHerald & other media outlets spreading absolutely fake news, even after I gave them comments? @GovRonDeSantis position has NOT CHANGED. Any districts that force mask children are subject to having funding for superintendent/school board salaries withheld. pic.twitter.com/KkgE5kMGMm
— Christina Pushaw (@ChristinaPushaw) August 13, 2021
Speaking in Surfside, Florida on Tuesday morning, where he handed out $1,000 bonuses to first responders who helped rescue victims of the condominium collapse in June, Gov. DeSantis said school-wide masking “is something that intimately affects the health and well-being of young kids.”
“We’ve had a whole year to watch how this has developed in Florida, in the United States, and throughout the world. I can tell you in Florida, we had school districts that mandated it last year, others that didn’t, same with private and charter (schools), and there was no statistical difference,” the governor said, adding that “it’s not natural” to require children “to sit there for eight hours” wearing a mask.
Author and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza shared an article reporting the governor’s aggressive suggestion to withhold funding from defiant school administrators on Twitter, remarking that “DeSantis isn’t being pushed around.”
DeSantis isn't being pushed aroundhttps://t.co/70onfvyHMq
— Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) August 10, 2021
The controversial executive order signed by Gov. DeSantis late last month directed the Florida Department of Health, along with the Florida Department of Education, to devise new rules to explicitly “protect parents’ freedom to choose whether their children wear masks,” according to a news release issued July 30 by the governor’s office.
According to the release, the directive is “in response to several Florida school boards considering or implementing mask mandates in their schools after the Biden Administration issued unscientific and inconsistent recommendations that school-aged children wear masks.”
One of the first significant challenges to the governor’s executive order may come from the Broward County School Board, which initially mandated facial coverings but reversed course after DeSantis’ July 30 executive order banning mask mandates for children.
Now, however, Broward has announced it will keep its mandate, and will file legal action to challenge the state’s ban on forcing children to wear masks.
As reported by CBS Miami, parents and children gathered at the school board meeting to express their views on the matter on August 10 prior to the school board’s decision, with some in favor of bucking the governor’s orders and some speaking out in opposition to mask mandates for kids.
One parent accused Gov. DeSantis of being a “bully” for his order leaving the decision about masking up to parents.
“I’m just asking you to please, as a mother, a special needs mother, please just do what you know in your heart is right. Don’t let this man bully you,” she said.
However another parent argued against the mandates, expressing concern that forcing children to wear masks for extended periods is unhealthy.
“I don’t feel comfortable with my son having to go into school and having to wear a mask the entire day, five days a week. I don’t think that’s very healthy for children to do that,” the parent said, adding that “bacteria collects in the mask and the children breathe that back in. That’s not a healthy thing to do.”
It remains to be seen whether DeSantis will be successful in fighting against school administrators and districts that defy his executive order.
During a press briefing Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters the Biden administration was looking at sending federal funds to Florida schools if DeSantis cuts off their state funding.
Jen Psaki is asked about Desantis’ continued refusal to permit mask mandates by local school boards, and about his order threatening to withhold funds from districts. Psaki says if he won’t protect children, get out of the way and let them do it. pic.twitter.com/1OlBm9iMz5
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) August 10, 2021
As reported by the New York Post, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona sent a letter to Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran saying school districts have “sole and complete discretion” use federal funds to pay the salaries of education officials whose pay is cut by the governor, and promising that if the Florida Department of Education “does not wish to pursue such an approach, the Department will continue to work directly with the school districts and educators that serve Florida’s students.”
The move would be a continued escalation in what has been a heated rhetorical battle between DeSantis and President Joe Biden over COVID-19 policy.
After President Biden told the Florida governor to “get out of the way” on COVID-19 mandates and restrictions, DeSantis hit back, saying “if you’re coming after the rights of parents in Florida, I’m standing in your way, I’m not going to let you get away with it. If you’re trying to deny kids a proper in-person education, I’m going to stand in your way, and I’m going to stand up for the kids in Florida.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis blasts Joe Biden, tells him to do his job and that Florida is a place for freedom, not a "biomedical security state." pic.twitter.com/bsarqlnbHY
— [1]) on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) August 4, 2021
Asked by reporters to reply to Gov. DeSantis’ comments, President Biden attempted to parry, responding, “Governor who?”
DeSantis was not long in reacting to the president’s remark, joking, “I guess I’m not surprised that Biden doesn’t remember me. I guess the question is, what else has he forgotten?”
LifeSiteNews has produced an extensive COVID-19 vaccines resources page. View it here.
References
| ↑1 | (Jason Rantz |
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