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Q&A – Penalties For Violating Florida’s Parent’s Bill Of Rights Part 2
Bottom Line: The bulk of the penalties written with Florida’s Parent’s Bill of Rights seemingly address school health officials administering unauthorized healthcare services to students. With The National Institutes of Health having published studies showing up to 81% of students having suffered negative mental and physical health effects from having to wear masks at school last year, may open the door to wider interpretation. Especially given the clarity by school districts that the mask mandates without parental opt outs are being carried out specifically for healthcare purposes. Something we’ve not discussed at any point in this school mask debate is the potential liability school officials and educators may be accepting by adhering to the unlawful mandates of the school districts.
While I doubt state enforcement would start at the individual school level, without having first taken more extensive action against violating school boards, there is the potential for liability. I specially addressed this topic on June 9th, in the story: What Happens If Florida’s Teachers Defy The Board Of Education? Back then the conversation centered around the Florida teachers who signed a pledge to teach Critical Race Theory after it was banned by the Florida Board of Education, which incidentally, parents should remain mindful of, but the provision I discussed then applies to this conversation today.
This is called “Education Misconduct”. According to the Florida Department of Education educator misconduct: Occurs in various forms and ranges in severity from allegations of direct harm to students to an act detrimental to the education profession. For the most part, misconduct by educators occurs either on the school campus or with members of the school community, but can also be something that happens outside of the school environment and does not involve students. The penalties for education misconduct are these: If the Commissioner of Education determines the educator's conduct warrants disciplinary action, the Education Practices Commission, a quasi-judicial body, determines what penalty to issue against an educator's certificate. Penalties that can be issued against an educator's certificate can range from a letter of reprimand, fines, probation, suspension or revocation.
Educators carrying out school mask mandates in violation of Florida law are potentially engaging in education misconduct. Especially with the state health department saying the school mask mandates directly harm students. This is why my message for parents who don’t want their children masked at school all day – is don’t do it. And if they take any punitive action against your child – sue them. Under Florida law right now school boards, superintendents, principals nor teachers retain any legal authority to enforce a mask mandate. And speaking of suing that’s exactly what the Florida Civil Rights Coalition has done on behalf of parents in Palm Beach County. While violating school boards and schools seemingly think they can ignore the law and just go about their business, there’s likely going to be much more to come and potentially some rude awakenings for them.