ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County school leaders voted Tuesday to make face masks optional for students, teachers and staff members in the fall.
Mask rules have been a controversial issue, with parents protesting and even disrupting meetings.
The school board heard a wide range of opinions from people on both sides of the debate, but personal choice and fatigue won the day.
‘Basically back to square one’: Cases going up, vaccinations going down in Orange County
The board has voted to make masks optional in Orange County schools -- but with the caveat that they may re-impose a mandate depending on how cases go over the next few weeks. @WFTV @CPutman_WFTV
— Nick Papantonis WFTV (@NPapantonisWFTV) July 13, 2021
If one of your main responsibilities is to ensure the best learning environment for our kids, then forced masks should never be part of our school protocol again,” one resident said.
“It has to be an option for the parents whether they want their kids to wear a mask,” another parent of an Orange County student said.
During a workshop last month, many parents expressed their desire that masks be made optional for students.
Before Tuesday’s vote, every Central Florida school district except Orange County had already decided to make masks optional.
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Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has long been against mask mandates, said he stands with parents wanting the requirements removed.
“I think it’s very unfair for some of the youngest kids, who are the least susceptible, least likely to spread it, they have the mitigation imposed on them more severely than a lot of adults do,” DeSantis said.
Not all parents are in favor of removing the mask requirements.
Some parents want to keep the mask mandate in place, citing concerns for immunocompromised children and the Delta variant.
Their school board’s decision Tuesday includes the option to re-impose a mandate depending on how COVID cases trend over the next few weeks.
“I reserve the right to come back and revisit the data every single day,” Board Chair Teresa Jacobs said during Tuesday’s meeting.
The first day of school in Orange County is Aug. 10.
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