30 More Days Of Masks Required At Hillsborough County Schools

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FL — Despite pleas from a parade of parents, on Thursday the Hillsborough County School Board extended the school district's mandatory mask mandate for another 30 days.

The extension requires all students at Hillsborough County public schools to wear masks unless they have a medical exemption requiring a doctor's certificate.

Superintendent Addison Davis recommended the extension based on the impact the initial mask mandate on Aug. 18 has had on the level of coronavirus rates in Hillsborough Schools.

"Since Sept. 1, we've seen a significant impact in cases over a week's time," he said. "The data's clear, there's been a change, and the only change we've made in the infrastructure is requiring masks."

When the school board voted to defy Gov. Ron DeSantis' executive order ordering that masks be voluntary, the county had 10,722 students and staff (4.8 percent) who either had the virus or were in quarantine after being exposed to the virus. That number rose to 13,485 students and staff (5.61 percent) on Aug. 20.

However, on Wednesday, that number dropped to 5,647 students and staff, Davis said, a 47 percent decrease since Aug. 18 and a 58 percent decrease since Aug. 20.

On Aug. 18, before the mask mandate, 398 students had confirmed cases of the coronavirus. That number rose to 601 on Aug. 23 but has gone down to 277 cases as of Sept. 8.

The Hillsborough County School Board was among the school boards in several Florida counties that decided to require masks at schools with a medical exemption despite threats from the governor that he would withhold funding, remove school board members and dock their pay.

A group of Florida parents subsequently sued DeSantis over his executive order. The judge rules in favor of the parents and the state appealed the ruling and asked for a stay. This week, the judge lifted the stay and the governor's office has appealed the judge's decision.

Hillsborough School District attorney Jim Porter said he expects the appeals court to rule on the state's appeal Friday. In the meantime, he said the state doesn't have the power to penalize school districts for mandating masks.

Davis said he believes the data shows the mask mandate "has had a positive impact," enabling more students and staff to remain in school.

"We've seen an overall decrease in students and employees who have been impacted," Davis said. "Hats off to our staff for being able to implement these quarantine regulations and rules, and to our students and parents for understanding the current situation that we are in," he said.

"I am one of these people who really feel that, long term, masks are very detrimental to young children," said school board member Nadia Combs. "For me, the masks aren't about freedom and our rights being taken away. For me, it's about what's going to be in the best interest of children and keeping our schools open."

She said, in the past 10 days, she's spoken with principals at about 10 schools, and they all told her they believe masks are decreasing the number of quarantines.

"The worst thing to happen right now is closing schools and going back to e-learning," she said.

She noted that nearly all the private schools, including all the Catholic schools in the state, have mandated masks.

Davis noted that the school district mandated masks all last school year.

"This year has really started out in a worse situation than we were in last year," he said. "While last year there was a lot of unknowns, we had a lot of mitigation strategies implemented this year, but we've seen an accelerated level of COVID cases."

The new mandate will run through Oct. 15 at which time the school board can vote to extend it again. School board member Stacey Hahn voted against the extension.