TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — As cases of COVID-19 surged across the state, Gov. Ron DeSantis held a secret meeting in the Capitol on Monday with medical professionals, underlining his opposition to mask mandates for students.
DeSantis has said he fears efforts at the federal or local level to impose a mask mandate for K-12 school students and said he would call a special session of the Legislature to prevent that from happening.
“Our view is that this should absolutely not be imposed. It should not be mandated,” DeSantis said at the meeting. “And I know our Legislature feels strongly about it, such that if, if you started to see a push from the feds or some of these local school districts, I know they’re interested in coming in, even in a special session to be able to provide protections for parents and kids who just want to breathe freely and don’t want to be suffering under these masks during the school year.”
