A judge allows Florida schools to force the use of a mask, deeming the governor's order illegal

By Terry Spencer and Curt Anderson -The Associated Press

Florida schools can force their students to wear a mask after a judge ruled Friday that the ban imposed by the governor, Republican Ron DeSantis, exceeds their authority.

Leon County Magistrate John C. Cooper agreed with a group of parents who claimed that the governor's executive order was unconstitutional and should not be enforced.

DeSantis wanted only parents to be able to decide whether or not their children should wear a mask, despite the fact that the number of deaths and hospitalizations from the coronavirus has reached its highest point in this state since the start of the pandemic.

The judge ruled that the governor lacks legal authority to prohibit schools from imposing the use of masks, after at least 10 educational districts decided to challenge that executive order and force students to wear them anyway.

In his sentence, the judge recalls two rulings of the Florida Supreme Court, in 1914 and 1939, which decided that individual freedom is limited by the impact it has on the rights of other people.

Thus, adults have the right to drink alcohol but not to drive a car drunk;

and there is freedom of expression but not to insult or threaten other people or to shout "fire" in a crowded theater.

"We do not have that right because exercising it in that way is harmful to other people," says the judge.

Districts that challenged his order comprised more than half of the state's 2.8 students.

DeSantis, who seems to have hopes of reaching the White House, threatened financial sanctions against those responsible if they did not comply with his order.

In Florida there are almost 17,000 people hospitalized for coronavirus, the highest number since the start of the pandemic; hospitals are about to run out of intensive care beds; and every day more than 21,000 new infections are registered, compared to 8,500 a month ago.