BARTOW The Polk County School Board is facing a showdown Tuesday, when more parents and students plan to demand a mask-free option on campuses across the district beginning immediately, with one Facebook group calling for a day of protest with less than three weeks of school left.
“The student code of conduct face covering policy requirement implemented by the PCSB should be brought to a vote and rescinded at the May 11 regular meeting,” the group No More Mask Mandate for Children stated on its private Facebook page last week.
The School Board voted unanimously last summer to add the mask mandate to the student code of conduct after listening to a panel of doctors from Nemours Children s Hospital, Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center and the Florida Department of Health’s Polk County office. No one from the public spoke for or against it or emailed the board about it before the vote, held via Zoom.