Mayor Poses Maskless At School After Fighting City Mask Ordinance

Updated: 12:05 p.m., Friday

SARASOTA, FL — The city of Sarasota shared pictures of Mayor Hagen Brody posing maskless with students at Tuttle Elementary School to its Facebook account April 1.

Brody was visiting the school with marine life artist Wyland, who was also maskless for a live mural painting to kick off the National Mayor’s Challenge for Water Conservation in Sarasota.

More than a dozen images were shared from the visit. In many, the mayor and the artist are surrounded by numerous masked students.

The mayor is masked in only two of these pictures. In one, he is socially distanced from seated students giving a thumbs up. In another, he wears a mask while using a spray paint can to contribute to the mural.

Sarasota County Schools has a mask policy requiring all individuals, including visitors, to wear a face mask covering their nose and mouth at any school district building or facility.

The mayor was criticized by a number of commenters on social media for not wearing a mask at the school.

"Shame on the Mayor for not wearing a mask inside and not observing social distance while at a school. What kind of example are you setting for these kids?" Alyson Withay wrote.

Erica Sirotich commented, "Shameful that you're maskless at an elementary school."

"I am so embarrassed and infuriated by the terrible lack of appropriate examples by Sarasota and Florida officials. Lack of conscience and responsibility in the face of a deadly pandemic that is out of control in the USA. Graphs may show that Florida is holding steady, BUT we are holding steady to a number that was way too high to begin with," Laura Krieger wrote.

When asked about his visit to Tuttle Elementary, Brody told Patch via email, "Is mask shaming public officials still trending? Good to know. You got me. I take my mask off momentarily time to time for pictures, to speak into a microphone, eat, drink and sleep at night."

He said he wore his mask "almost (the) entirety of the time" he was at the school.

The mayor’s maskless images come after months of his opposing an extension of Sarasota’s citywide emergency mask ordinance put in place at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In February, Brody, Vice Mayor Erik Arroyo and Commissioner Kyle Battie voted against extending the emergency mask ordinance. The mandate, requiring face coverings in indoor and outdoor public locations within city limits, expired Feb. 25.

Battie reconsidered the matter, changing his mind about whether Sarasota should have a mask requirement, and revisited the topic at the commission’s March 15 meeting. While commissioners supported the motion to revive the ordinance in a 3-2 vote — with Brody and Arroyo voting against it — four votes were needed for it to pass.

Now, the mask mandate is being considered a third time by the commission after Commissioner Jennifer Ahearn-Koch revived it at Monday’s meeting. In a 3-2 vote — with Brody and Arroyo voting against masks, again — decided to begin the process of resurrecting the policy.

At the meeting, Brody reiterated his support of wearing masks, but said he doesn’t believe residents should be forced to wear them in public. He also said he doesn’t want to direct city employees, either code enforcers or police, to enforce such a mandate.

"That is just not the government that I want for Sarasota," he said.

Brody added that he's "disappointed" that the "flat-out silly" motion moved forward, calling the matter of masks "ridiculously political."

"You've got Republicans that want to make a statement by not wearing masks. You've got Democrats that want to run around and tell everybody else to wear a mask," he said. "Why can't we let our own community, our own citizens make a choice about whether they want to wear a mask or not?"

Patch has contacted Brody and Sarasota County Schools for this story.