BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — After nearly five hours of public comments and discussion, the Brevard County School Board voted 3-2 Monday to reinstate a mask mandate for the district.
Effective immediately, the policy will be in place for 30 days. The board would have to vote again to extend it beyond that.
READ: Coronavirus: Florida teen dies days before starting senior year of high school
The school board voted earlier this month to make masks optional.
A judge’s order announced Friday freed school districts up to impose mask mandates, ruling that Governor Ron DeSantis overstepped his authority by ordering a statewide ban on such policies.
On Friday, the school district reported more than 780 COVID-19 cases and 4,000 quarantines.
READ: Brevard County expands COVID-19 testing, vaccine access to residents
The highly contagious delta variant led to an acceleration in cases around Florida and record high hospitalizations just as schools prepared to reopen classrooms this month.
About 6 in 10 Americans say students and teachers should be required to wear face masks while in school, according to a poll conducted this month by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
While most Americans favor mask and vaccines mandates in schools, there is a wide partisan divide. Less than 4 in 10 Republicans favor mask or vaccine requirements for students and teachers, compared with more than three-quarters of Democrats. https://t.co/qvDlpJCoZp
— AP-NORC Center (@APNORC) August 23, 2021
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