Gov. DeSantis threatens to withhold salaries at schools that require masks for employees, students



Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said that he might withhold salaries of superintendents and school board members who attempt to circumvent his statewide ban on face coverings.

What are the details?

In a Monday statement to WFOR-TV, a spokesperson for DeSantis' office said, "With respect to enforcing any financial consequences for noncompliance of state law regarding these rules and ultimately the rights of parents to make decisions about their children's education and health care decisions, it would be the goal of the State Board of Education to narrowly tailor any financial consequences to the offense committed."

The statement added that the governor prioritizes "protecting parents' rights" and "ensuring that every student has access to high-quality education that meets their unique needs."

"For example," the statement continued, "the State Board of Education could move to withhold the salary of the district superintendent or school board members, as a narrowly tailored means to address the decision-makers who led to the violation of law."

DeSantis previously threatened to cut off funding for schools that mandate masks for students for the 2021-2022 school year.

Christina Pushaw, DeSantis' spokesperson, told Slate, "Education funding is for the students. The kids didn't make the decision to encroach upon parents' rights. So any financial penalties for breaking the rule would be targeted to those officials who made that decision."

What else?

Alberto Carvalho, Miami-Dade's school superintendent, issued a statement of his own in response to DeSantis' remarks.

"We have established a process that requires consultation with experts in areas of public health and medicine," Carvalho said in a statement. "We will follow this process, which has served us well, and then make a final decision. At no point shall I allow my decision to be influenced by a threat to my paycheck; a small price to pay considering the gravity of this issue and the potential impact to the health and well-being of our students and dedicated employees. I want to thank the Governor for recognizing that students should not be penalized."

Leon County Superintendent Rocky Hanna also told school officials, "You can't put a price tag on someone's life, including my salary."

"If something happened and things went sideways for us this week and next week as we started school, and heaven forbid we lost a child to this virus, I can't just simply blame the governor of the state. I can't," Hanna added.

Alachua County Superintendent Carlee Simon said that parents "won't be able to opt out of a mask mandate unless they have a medical reason," Slate reported.

"I know it appears I'm being combative and I don't want to be combative, but this is the responsibility I have in this position," Simon said, adding that she'd be interested in learning the legalities of how she could possibly lose a portion of her salary for mandating masks in schools.

'I find that deplorable': Gov. Ron DeSantis rips into reporter for question about kids with COVID



Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ripped into a reporter who asked him a question about his responsibility for children who had contracted the coronavirus in Florida.

DeSantis was speaking to reporters on Tuesday when he got into a heated exchange with one journalist.

"Seven kids are in Joe DiMaggio Hospital, two of them are in ICU. Don't you think the mask would help those poor children?" the reporter asked.

"Do you have any data to suggest that? Do you know if they were wearing masks?" DeSantis fired back.

"I know they weren't vaccinated," she responded.

"Well, right, they're not eligible for the vaccination," replied DeSantis.

"So you're blaming the kids, saying they weren't wearing masks so they're in the ICU. With all due respect, I find that deplorable to blame a victim who ends up being hospitalized! You don't know their story, you don't know what happened with that!" DeSantis continued.

"This has been a really negative thing throughout this whole thing, with some of these, quote, experts, some of the media. Somebody can contract a highly transmissible airborne virus and they're viewed as having done something wrong. That's just not the way you do it. When people come in, you treat them!" DeSantis added.

Prior to that exchange, DeSantis accused the media of fear mongering and causing hysteria with their inaccurate reporting.

Florida is facing a resurgence of coronavirus with nearly 17,000 new daily cases reported on Tuesday, and 140 additional deaths. Overall, nearly 40,000 people in Florida have died from the coronavirus.

DeSantis also said during the briefing that he was dedicated to keeping Florida open despite the coronavirus resurgence.

"We are not shutting down," he said declaratively.

"We are going to have schools open," DeSantis said. "We are protecting every Floridian's job in this state. We are protecting people's small businesses. These interventions have failed time and time again throughout this pandemic, not just in the United States but abroad. They have not stopped the spread, particularly with delta."

Here's video of the fiery exchange:

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis blames the media for hysteria and fearmongeringwww.youtube.com

White House attacks GOP Govs. Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott: Mitigate dangerous Delta spike or 'get out of the way'



White House press secretary Jen Psaki issued scathing advice to Republican Govs. Ron DeSantis (Fla.) and Greg Abbott (Texas): Get control of the Delta variant in your states or "get out of the way."

Both of the Republican leaders have been outspoken in their opposition to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's newly updated guidelines recommending universal masking in schools and high-transmission areas.

What are the details?

A Wednesday report from Yahoo! News detailed Psaki's Tuesday press briefing from the White House, as COVID-19 case counts in Florida and Texas have risen to the point that they currently account for one-third of all infections across the United States.

Psaki, who insisted that the Biden administration has offered assistance to both governors to get the spread under control, appeared to suggest that the states' leaders have yet to accept the White House's help.

"But if you aren't going to help, if you aren't going to abide by public health guidance, then get out of the way and let people do the right thing to lead in their communities, whether they are teachers, university leaders, or private sector leaders or others who are trying to save lives," she said Tuesday in response to the questions about the rising confirmed COVID-19 case numbers in both Florida and Texas.

The outlet added, "Asked to clarify what she meant by having the two governors 'get out of the way,' Psaki elaborated, 'That means don't ban, don't make it harder for people to put requirements on masks — or asking for vaccination status — into law."

She added, "Leaders are going to have to choose whether they're going to follow public health guidelines or they're going to follow politics."

Elsewhere in her Tuesday remarks, Psaki said that President Joe Biden would likely speak directly to DeSantis about the state's rising COVID-19 numbers — but only if they "thought it would make a difference."

"But I don't have any expectation or prediction of a call between them," she hastily added.

What was the response?

In a statement on Psaki's remarks, the DeSantis administration said:

She might want to brush up on the Constitution and learn more about the role of a state governor. As it turns out, freedom matters. Every day, nearly a thousand Americans relocate to Florida — mostly fleeing from the ever-changing, contradictory COVID restrictions pushed by federal bureaucrats on lockdown states. By contrast, Governor DeSantis keeps up with the latest research and makes data-driven decisions. If he had 'gotten out of the way' as Psaki suggested, and let the CDC run our state, many of those lives might have been lost — as we saw with the tragic situation in New York, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, where the age-adjusted death rates are significantly higher than in Florida.

A spokesperson for the Abbott administration in Texas has yet to issue public remark on Psaki's admonitions.