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Two women stand and speak at the front of a room with a group of people seated around tables
Press Statement August 27, 2021

NAACP Releases Statement on Mask Mandates

Two women stand and speak at the front of a room with a group of people seated around tables

As Florida has become the nation's epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, unfortunately its executive branch has decided to use its children as political pawns.  Rather than advocating for the use of reasonable safety measures to protect children against the spread and effects of COVID-19, Florida's Governor, under the guise of personal freedom, has ordered that no school may require children to wear masks. Moreover, the Governor's executive order has urged the Florida Department of Education to withhold funds from any school districts that implement a mandate for children to wear masks.

Children ages 5 through 14 make up the largest group of new COVID-19 cases in Orange County, Florida.  Over the past month, the sharpest increase in cases in the state has been in children under 12 years old.  As of August 20, 2021, an average of 188 children are hospitalized in Florida each day due to the virus.  Florida had had more than 3 million COVID cases.  As of this statement, more than 43,632 Floridians have died.  This is more than the seating capacity of Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Governor is refusing to govern responsibly.  Indeed, the state's Department of Health refusal to listen to health experts is an outright failure to protect the health of the most innocent among us, children.  The state's Department of Education rejection of science and threats to withhold education funds for school districts who mandate the wearing of masks is a blatant failure to protect school children from a deadly virus.   

The NAACP calls upon the U.S. Department of Education to use its proactive investigation authority to take bold action to enforce the laws against discrimination and ensure that schools that lose funding at the hands of the State immediately regain that funding from our national government.

The NAACP supports and encourages all children to wear masks at school and on school buses.  The Association urges the Governor to take all necessary steps to protect students, teachers, administrators, and all school staff.  This is truly a matter of life and death.