Florida teachers on edge as mask war, COVID surge mark first weeks of school

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten crouched to sit at a first-graders’ table in a Florida school, chatting with masked 6-year-olds about books and their former kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Smith.

Lillian Smith, a local union steward who taught at William A. Chapman Elementary in Miami-Dade County for more than 30 years, died last month of COVID-19. At least four Miami-Dade County teachers or staff have died from COVID so far this school year, as cases and hospitalizations in Florida have soared.

Weingarten, in Miami on Friday as part of a U.S. tour to support COVID-safe back-to-school measures like masking, told Reuters that Florida is “a place where you have a governor who is more concerned about his political aspirations than the safety and the wellbeing of the people he was elected to serve.”

Republican Governor Ron DeSantis in July issued an executive order barring school mask mandates. DeSantis, whose office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has said parents should decide if their children wear masks. Parents in Florida and across the country have clashed with school and health officials in what has become a politicized tussle over COVID precautions.