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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nTallahassee-based Circuit Judge John Cooper, who earlier threw out the mask restriction, took the unusual step of removing an automatic stay this week that kept the ban in place while DeSantis challenged the underlying ruling before the 1st District Court of Appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DeSantis immediately appealed Cooper\u2019s decision and Friday the court agreed with the governor. Judges also cast doubt on Cooper\u2019s decision to overturn the mask prohibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUpon our review of the trial court\u2019s final judgment and the operative pleadings, we have serious doubts about standing, jurisdiction and other threshold matters,\u201d the court wrote, although it stopped short of any further action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DeSantis has ordered that counties allow parents to opt out of mask requirement for their children. But in response to a lawsuit brought by parents from a half-dozen Florida counties, Cooper ruled that school boards are empowered to mandate that all students wear face coverings, unless they get a medical exception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When attorneys for those same parents sought to keep the ban from remaining in place while the governor appealed, Cooper agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not in normal times. We\u2019re in a pandemic,\u201d Cooper said Wednesday in removing the governor\u2019s restriction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Covid-19 cases continue to soar, 11 Florida counties already have defied DeSantis by requiring masks, unless a parent brings a doctor\u2019s note requesting that a child not wear a mask because of a medical condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran has notified Broward and Alachua counties that school board salaries are being withheld because of their stand. He also sent letters warning the other counties they face similar punishment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Cooper lifted the stay, that move was also aimed at stopping the salary penalty from being imposed. Whether the state plans to continue docking the two counties and expanding the punishment further was not immediately clear Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ruling Friday was by Judges Stephanie Ray, Harvey Jay and Adam Tanenbaum. Ray and Jay were appointed to the appeals court by former Gov. Rick Scott, while Tanenbaum was named by DeSantis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The governor has been expecting success at the 1st District Court of Appeal, whose 15 members have all been appointed by Republican governors, including three by DeSantis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The governor and his spokeswomen have pointed out that another Leon judge last year blocked DeSantis\u2019 plans for the in-person reopening of schools, only to have a 1st DCA panel side with the governor \u2013 clearing the way for students to return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cooper, though, in his actions has emphasized that the delta variant of Covid-19 now sweeping Florida and the globe is striking children more commonly than the virus was a year ago. Districts are dealing with students, teachers and staff either contracting the illness or having to quarantine because of exposure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two counties, Gulf and Taylor, closed their schools completely for a few days last week to allow teachers and parents to regroup because the number of Covid cases and quarantines made it impossible to hold classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Florida has 1.6 million school children under age 12 who can\u2019t be vaccinated. The state has been averaging 14,276 daily cases of Covid-19 for a week \u2013 with 54% of the population fully vaccinated, slightly above the national level, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In issuing his ruling overturning the mandatory mask ban, Cooper said DeSantis had overreached his authority, misinterpreted state law and ignored scientific evidence in issuing his order. Cooper noted CDC guidance calls for everyone in K-12 schools to wear a mask regardless of their vaccination status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lawsuit against DeSantis was filed by parents from Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Hillsborough, Pinellas and Alachua counties. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An appeals court Friday reinstated Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 ban on school mask requirements at least temporarily, while a ruling overturning the prohibition is being reviewed by judges. Tallahassee-based Circuit Judge John Cooper,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":47471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[667],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50440"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50440"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50441,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50440\/revisions\/50441"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}