Florida educators file lawsuit after state forces schools to reopen this fall
Florida educators have filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the state’s emergency order that forces schools to open for in-person instruction next month.
The president of the Florida Education Association, Fedrick Ingram, announced the suit against Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Giménez, the Florida Department of Education and the Florida State Board of Education. The suit was filed in the 11th Circuit Court in Miami.
About 23,000 children in the state have tested positive for Covid -19, Ingram told CNN’s “New Day” on Tuesday.
“It’s unfortunate that we have a governor that is playing politics with children’s lives, with teachers’ lives, with cafeteria workers and bus drivers and secretaries, and people who really want to get back into our public schools,” he said.
In fact, the 13.4% positivity rate for Florida children younger than 18 is more than 50% higher than the national rate for all people — which has averaged 8.5% over the past week, according to a CNN analysis of data from the Covid Tracking Project.
“These are not circumstances in which we have business as usual,” Ingram said. “We cannot be guided by politics, nor can we be guided by the economy. We must keep kids alive, we must keep them healthy and safe.”
Corcoran issued the emergency order earlier this month, requiring all “brick and mortar schools” to open “at least five days per week for all students.”
Florida has more than 360,000 coronavirus cases and more than 5,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tally. More than 9,500 people are hospitalized with the virus in the state.
Ingram voiced concern about children from multigenerational homes or who have parents or siblings with underlying medical conditions and the risk of transmission to others.
“We believe that that is reckless,” Ingram said of the executive order on Monday at a news conference. “We believe that it is unconscionable, and we also believe that the executive order is unconstitutional.”
“No one wants to be back in a classroom and reopen our school more than educators,” Ingram added. “But we want to do it safely. And we don’t want to put people at risk.”
Leaders of the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association joined the news conference in support of the lawsuit. AFT President Randi Weingarten said DeSantis, who has been pushing for schools to reopen, is in “intense denial.”
“As a national affiliate, we’ll do everything we can do to make sure not only our members are safe, but our community is safe, and that we do not lose a generation of children because of the denial and the recklessness,” Weingarten said.
NEA President Lily Eskelsen GarcÃa said, “It is a false choice to either keep schools closed, stop learning or open them unsafely.”
Teachers from Florida also joined the virtual news conference to issue their support.
Stefanie Miller, who had Covid-19 and was on a ventilator for 21 days, has been a teacher in Broward County for 22 years.
“I don’t wish this on anyone,” Miller said of her recovery from the virus. “I, of course, want to go back to teaching, but it needs to be safe. There’s no way that children can sit in their seat for six hours, wearing a mask and not feel the stress of this situation. Teaching online is not optimal, but it’s best to keep teachers, personnel and families safe.”
