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Q&A – Penalties For Violating Florida’s Parent’s Bill Of Rights Part 1
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
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Today’s entry: Thank you from Volusia County for your insightful coverage of the Parents Bill. Are you familiar with civil or criminal penalties that can be applied to Florida school board members that mandate masks?
Bottom Line: With a remarkable 12 of Florida’s 67 school districts still choosing to violate Florida’s Parental Bill of Rights, according to the DeSantis administration and the courts, including all of South Florida’s school districts – along with yours in Volusia, this is an excellent question. Already the state has withheld funding equal to the salaries of the school boards in Alachua and Broward counties, the first two to defy state law, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The state made this clear as they stated: As an initial step, the Florida Department of Education will then begin to withhold from state funds, on a monthly basis, an amount equal to 1/12 of the total annual compensation of the school board members who voted to impose the unlawful mask mandates until each district demonstrates compliance. The initial step notation looms large in the conversation. As for what those subsequent steps could be. They are many based upon the type(s) of infraction related to the parental bill of rights. I’ll get to that in a moment but first, the potential penalties in Florida Statutes pertaining to school boards are very clear. The law states:
- Any member of the district school board who is responsible for the violation of this provision is subject to suspension and removal.
No real ambiguity. There are three phases of potential punishment for school board members. Phase one is withholding funding equal to the salaries of these officials. Step two would be suspension. Step three would be removal. There are no inherent criminal penalties that’d be applied with the school mask mandate example under Florida law. Now there’s another key cog in this conversation. The schools.
Remove schools from the conversation for a moment. Let’s say your boss at work instructs you to break the law. If you do, do you have personal liability? Of course, right? It’s unfortunate that school districts would place educators and staff at the school level in this position, but they have. Given that the school districts have no lawful authority to mandate masks without parental opt outs, neither do school officials. Most of the penalties associated with violations of the Parent’s Bill of Rights are specific to healthcare decisions made without a parent’s consent at the individual school level. The case could be made and based on the state’s previous statements regarding the violations, that mask mandates are a non-consented healthcare violation. Under the law this is what it states:
Section 8 – Administrative Fines and Violations The Agency for Health Care Administration may impose an administrative fine for a violation of the provisions regarding the parental consent for health care services. The violation is an unclassified violation and the fine may not exceed $500 for each violation.
Section 9 – Grounds for Discipline The Department of Health may take disciplinary action against someone who fails to comply with the parental consent requirements for health care services. The disciplinary actions range from refusing to certify a license or certify the license with restrictions, suspending or permanently revoking a license, restricting a license, imposing an administrative fine not to exceed $10,000 for each offense, issuing a reprimand or letter of concern, placing the licensee on probation, taking corrective action, imposing an administrative fine for violations of patient rights, requiring the refund of fees billed and collected, and requiring that the practitioner to undergo remedial education.
I’ll pick up the implications in the second part of today’s Q&A.