During an appearance on CBS’s Face The Nation over the weekend, Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho went after Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis for his efforts to block the imposition of mandates to wear face masks in schools. After an appeals court recently allowed DeSantis’s ban on school mask mandates to be enforced, the Biden administration launched a civil rights investigation into the policy on the basis of the theory that it may violate the rights of medically vulnerable students who need mask-wearing policies in place in order to safely attend school. On CBS, Carvalho insisted that yes, DeSantis’s policy stands in violation of certain students’ rights.
Directly asked if he believes that DeSantis’s ban on school mask mandates violates the rights of children with disabilities, Carvalho replied in the affirmative. He added as follows:
‘Look, I am the superintendent of a district that has lost 13 employees since August 16. Yes, all of them were un-vaccinated. We’re still in a community where the positivity rate is at eight percent, where the number of cases per 100,000 residents is elevated — around 330, when back in June, it was only about 76 individuals per 100,000. So the conditions are not what they should be for us to relax the protocols.’
Check out those comments below:
.@MiamiSup Alberto Carvalho says Florida ban on mask mandates violates rights of children with disabilities: “The conditions [in district] are not what they should be for us to relax the protocols.” pic.twitter.com/qlOiQ86cGx
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) September 12, 2021
More broadly, Carvalho also addressed the political underpinnings of the situation. As he put it, discussing the push for vaccinations:
‘This should not be a political issue. This is a health concern issue. We’ve never debated the value of vaccinations for measles, mumps, polio, or hepatitis. What’s different now? The conditions, the health conditions are not what are causing this issue. Politics are. And sadly, here we are, debating this from a political perspective rather than a health benefit perspective. And I tell you, as a superintendent, as a father, as a teacher — I am concerned for our kids. They are being used as political pawns in this political chess game, and that is reprehensible.’
Check out those comments below:
“This should not be a political issue,” @MiamiSup Alberto Carvalho says. “This is a health concern issue. We've never debated the value of vaccinations for measles, mumps, polio or hepatitis. What is the difference now?” pic.twitter.com/q2UvC3Ci3L
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) September 12, 2021
Carvalho is not the only leader to speak similarly regarding the reckless efforts of Republican leaders like DeSantis. President Joe Biden himself also spoke out recently against Republican governors who have been opposed to basic safety precautions like school mask mandates, commenting as follows while visiting a school in D.C.:
‘I am so disappointed that particularly some of the Republican governors have been so cavalier with the health of these kids, so cavalier with the health of their communities. We’re playing for real here. This isn’t a game.’
Check out those comments from Biden below:
