Florida Keys schools keep a mask opt-out, but health officials worry about COVID cases
Kids and parents still have a choice in the Keys: to wear a mask or to not wear a mask.
The Monroe County School Board on Tuesday voted 5-0 to allow students to opt out of wearing facial coverings even as local health officials warn that COVID-19 is spreading at an alarming rate.
“It’s worse than it’s ever been,” said Dr. Mark Whiteside, medical director of the Florida Department of Health in Monroe County. “I have not been this concerned about our county as much as I am today.”
August has been the worst month of the pandemic for the Keys, with 1,375 cases added so far, according to Miami Herald/FLKeysNews.com calculations of state data.
January 2021 had held the record with 1,061 cases reported, Whiteside said.
Monroe has recorded at least 9,143 confirmed cases and 52 deaths, the Miami Herald and FLKeysNews.com have reported.
Keys School Board members sat through a meeting Tuesday night that lasted nearly four hours before deciding to stick with their Aug. 10 decision to have the opt-out, which is in line with state directives. At the start, Bob Eadie, administrator of the Florida Department of Health in Monroe County, said the board may want to consider a mask mandate.
“We need to go back to the beginning almost and practice washing your hands, wearing a mask, socially distancing, avoiding crowds,” Eadie said.
In the Keys, public school students have more room to spread out than they would in Miami, said Board Member Mindy Conn. The Miami-Dade and Broward public school districts, among the largest in the country, both have mask mandates.
“I understand why some of the other very large counties are making a different decision than we are,” Conn said. “As of now, the governor’s order has made the right of a parent to opt out a constitutional right.”
Conn said the Keys school district should still have a plan this year for school shutdowns.
“The key here is to be prepared for something else,” Conn said.
Said School Board Vice Chair Andy Griffiths: “We are a small and unique district and we’re able to do mitigation the larger districts can’t. I never thought an option would be to break the law.”
Masks are required for most Florida students
Just over half of Florida’s 2.8 million public school students now face mandates to wear masks in classrooms in defiance of an order from Gov. Ron DeSantis prohibiting mask mandates, The Associated Press reported Wednesday.
As of Tuesday night, 10 Florida school districts — Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Hillsborough, Leon, Sarasota, Alachua, Duval, Indian River and Orange — had mask mandates in place.
About 12 percent of Monroe students have opted out of wearing masks in schools.
In the Keys, the School Board said it would continue to monitor cases among its 8,818 students. As of Wednesday, 116 students had tested positive for COVID-19, along with nine teachers and nine staff members.
Last school year, there were 286 total cases, Superintendent of Schools Theresa Axford said.
Board Member Sue Woltanski said after hearing from Eadie, she would like to have a discussion about ending the opt-out, saying she’s more concerned than ever about COVID-19.
“It is rampant right now and if we can do something that will squash it for a couple of weeks I think we should do it,” Woltanski said.
School Board Chair John Dick said he’s vaccinated but he doesn’t trust the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance.
“What’s happening here and the CDC doesn’t want to admit to it, the vaccines don’t last as long as they originally thought,” Dick said. “That’s what’s fueling a lot of this COVID right now. The CDC is not gonna admit it.”
Dick said he doesn’t trust the CDC because it’s political. That drew applause from members of the audience.
“They need to own up to what’s going on here,” Dick said of the CDC. “Until they do, this thing isn’t going to slow down.”
‘Keep her safe’
The board heard about 25 speakers before the vote. Some questioned whether masks help prevent the virus.
“Viruses are like a mosquito going through a chain link fence with these masks,” said Simone Peer, of the Saddlebunch Keys. “They really don’t do anything.”
Joshua McNew, a father of four children in the school district, said masks are not 100% effective and can be harmful for young children to wear all day, every day.
“It’s our choice and let’s try to keep it that way,” McNew said.
Others said the School Board needs to protect students and staff right now.
Dr. Stanley Zuba, a pediatrician in Tavernier, pleaded with the School Board to cancel the opt-out unless there’s a medical reason.
“If you choose to allow this opt-out to continue and children die or children get sick, that will be on all of you at the end of the day,” Zuba said.
Kat Wheatley spent only 30 seconds at the lectern. Unlike others, she kept her mask on as she spoke about her 11-year-old daughter who attends Ocean Studies Charter School in Key Largo.
“I just want you to keep her safe,” Wheatley said. “Two children in Florida have died. And I will wear this mask everywhere I go if it will protect one child and I want you to do the same for my child.”
Ginny Donaldson of Summerland Key said: “We are at war, it’s a spiritual war. Mandate. Communism. Socialism. This is what we’re under. We have to ask permission to take our masks off. You can opt out of wearing a mask if you’re a kid. We came in here to opt out. I am healthy. I take care of myself. If you’re sick, wear a mask. Stay home.”
Near the end of the meeting, about an hour after the public comments had wrapped up, Board Vice Chair Andy Griffiths said, “I just wish people would care more about others than themselves and their freedom is more important than the health of others. That’s just disappointing to me.”
For two weeks, the positivity rate in the Keys has been 22%.
Key West’s only hospital, Lower Keys Medical Center, changed its surge status to yellow from green on Aug. 20 for the first time during the pandemic. Whiteside said that on Wednesday, the hospital had 26 COVID-19-positive patients, with seven in the ICU and five were on ventilators.
Yellow means the hospital must order additional resources, including staff. But there are still beds available to house patients, a spokeswoman for LKMC said.
Dr. John Norris, an attending physician at LKMC, said the hospital is ordering more ventilators and needs more ICU nurses.
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