Judge Allows Florida Schools to Mandate Masks, State To Appeal

The state already started withholding funds from Alachua and Broward County's school districts.

While the latest COVID-19 surge took hold in Florida, some of the biggest school districts defied state leaders with stricter mask mandates, as some parents took the issue to court.  Thursday, a judge formally signed an order blocking Florida's mask rules that allow parents to opt out of school mandates and explaining the law doesn't allow defendants to punish school boards for adopting mask mandates without parental opt outs if school boards were denied their due process rights.  The order states: "The 'Enjoined Defendants' are ordered not to violate the Parents' Bill of Rights by taking action to effect a blanket ban on face mask mandates by local school boards and by denying school boards their due process rights granted by the statute which permits them to demonstrate the reasonableness of the mandate and the other factors stated in the law."