Mask Mandate Prompts Parents To Sue Sarasota County School Board

SARASOTA, FL — A group of parents filed a lawsuit against the Sarasota County School Board over whether students can be forced to wear masks at school.

According to the lawsuit, filed Oct. 21 in the 12th Judicial Circuit Court in Sarasota, the goal “is to empower parents, whose love for their children cannot be questioned, and have the sole right to make decisions in their children’s best interest.”

The board voted 3-2 at its Oct. 20 meeting to extend the district’s mask mandate for students, staff and teachers, originally enacted ahead of the school year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. They’re required to continue wearing masks covering their mouth and nose whenever they’re indoors on Sarasota County Schools property.

The parents listed as plaintiffs on the lawsuit are Amy Cook, Gustavo Collazo, Nicholas Eastman and Catherine Gonzales. So far, they’ve raised more than $11,000 for legal fees through a GoFundMe campaign. They’re represented by Tampa attorney Patrick Leduc.

“We just want to stop these masks at schools,” Collazo said. “It doesn’t make sense for these kids to be in masks.”

He’s the father of a 13-year-old middle school student who comes home with face rashes and has difficulty breathing from wearing masks at school all day, he said. He added that since people 65 and older are most affected by COVID-19, “then the elderly are the ones that should wear the masks.”

In a message through GoFundMe, Cook said, “We are not making any comments at this time, other (than) to say that things are underway and parents are ready and already pulling their children out of Sarasota County Schools until this mask mandate is over. We have many parents working together and brainstorming to open our own school or looking into the schools in the area that do not require masks.”

Leduc called the district’s mask mandate “unconstitutional.” The lawsuit isn’t about face masks, he added. “A child has a constitutional right to go to school. Face masks are just a peripheral thing to the real argument here.”

The lawsuit invokes Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), which ended racial segregation of children in public schools. This landmark case rules that “education has to be uniform,” he said. If students are uncomfortable wearing masks at school, they’re offered e-learning as a substitute. This is “insufficient to in-person learning” and also “physically detrimental to a child” as it affects their brain development, he said.

By doing so, Sarasota schools is “proposing a separate and unequal education that is not uniform and violates the Florida Constitution,” Leduc told Patch. “The school board takes the position that you don’t have a fundamental right to an education and all you need is one good reason.”

He also questions how deadly COVID-19 is for children and said there’s “no science to support” claims that wearing a mask inhibits the spread of the virus. Leduc added, “We are screwing kids left and right …. COVID-19 should not make the rule of law its victim.”

He’s representing parents who have filed similar lawsuit in Brevard, Hillsborough and Lee counties as well. He expects some parents in Indian Rivers County to file soon, as well.

If Leduc wins one of these cases, he expects others to follow suit “like a house of cards.” He also expects the outcome of the 2020 president election will impact the cases.

“Look at how blue states are being run versus red states,” he said. “There’s a higher degree of regulation … control.”

At the Oct. 20 school board meeting, Dr. Manuel E. Gordillo, an infectious disease specialist, expressed concerns about children spreading COVID-19.

"The problem that I see with young children is they live with parents and they live in a community and our community is one where there is a lot of elderly, and poor and disadvantaged populations," he said, as well as those "susceptible to severe illness."

Children "are probably at low risk by themselves," Gordillo added, "but they don't live in a bubble. They live in a community."

Kelsey Whealy, a media relations specialist for Sarasota County Schools., said the district doesn't comment on pending lawsuits.