Parents to demonstrate against Orange County schools mask mandate
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. - A group of parents is calling on Orange County Public Schools to make face masks optional for the next school year. Currently, OCPS requires mask wearing for children, teachers, and staff.
Nearly 100 parents joined a Facebook group called "Unmask OCPS Kids" and plan on gathering outside the OCPS administration building with signs Tuesday at 3:45 p.m. ahead of Tuesday’s school board meeting.
"We don’t want to tell other parents what to do, but we deserve the right to make choices for our own kids," said parent Christine Izutani, who pulled her daughter out of OCPS this school year. "We just were not comfortable with her in masks for eight hours a day. Inside, outside, all day, even at a desk. It was just too much."
Izutani said wants to re-enroll her daughter in OCPS, but only if the district makes the face mask mandate optional.
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Parent Ben Stout wants the same thing.
"Around us Seminole County, Volusia County, UCF, [all these public institutions and places] have also made masks optional in recent weeks and so Orange County just seems to be dragging their feet on this."
Some parents want the face mask mandate to stay in place at school.
"Masks may be an inconvenience, but they protect the people around you and which is more important? Which do we want to teach our children is more important," one mother recently pleaded her case at a Brevard County school board meeting.
Florida’s education commissioner is calling on all school districts in the state to make masks optional next school year. OCPS Superintendent Dr. Barbara Jenkins recently told FOX 35 the district’s medical advisory committee had concerns making any mask recommendation this early for next school year.
"I think it’s important to note though, we can’t relax at this point because we don’t know what the summer will bring. We don’t know what the data will look like in the coming weeks even, so for us to quickly relax and let go of all our precautions would not be wise," Dr. Jenkins said. The school board is set to discuss the face mask policy three times over the summer:
- Tuesday, June 1 at 1 p.m. – Work Session (board discussion, with medical advisors; no public input)
- Thursday, June 17 at 1 p.m. – Rule Development Workshop (with public input)
- Tuesday, July 13 at 4:45 p.m. – School board meeting to vote on adoption of revised policy (with public input)
All board meetings are live-streamed on the School Board’s YouTube page To find the live stream, click HERE.