Judge allows Florida school districts to keep mandating masks while state appeals
In a blow to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who had banned mask mandates in schools, Tallahassee Judge John Cooper ruled to lift the stay Wednesday, preventing the state from enforcing the ban as an appeals court sorts out the legality.
The stay applies to Cooper's ruling last month that told the state it couldn't punish districts for requiring masks.
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DeSantis has struggled to rein in the state's largest school systems as they implement mask mandates in defiance of state law.
At least 13 districts, including Florida's six largest, currently have mask requirements in place. The Florida Department of Education has threatened to withhold the salaries of school board members in most of these districts and has begun doing so in at least two cases.
None of the districts have indicated they plan to change course in the face of the threats.
A spokesperson for the governor, Taryn Fenske, said in a statement, "Today we plan to file our emergency motion to reinstate the stay, and we anticipate the appellate court will rule quickly, much like during the school re-opening case last year."
-ABC News' Will McDuffie