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Disturbing Report: School Tied Mask on to Little Girl With Down Syndrome for Weeks

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Florida educators forced a young girl with Down syndrome to wear a mask by tying it to her head despite it putting the non-verbal child in possible danger, a furious father claims.

Sofia Steele — a 7-year-old girl from Indian Harbour Beach, Florida — allegedly stepped off the school bus on Oct. 7 with a face mask on. Jeffery Steele, the 7-year-old’s father, thought it was strange since she had never come home from school wearing a mask. Upon further inspection, the father said he found that the face mask was tied around the girl’s head with a blue nylon string and held in place with hair clips. The mask was allegedly soaked with saliva.

“I was so angry so I waited four days from Thursday 7th to Tuesday after Columbus Day because I really need to calm down,” Steel told WOFL-TV. “When this child got off the bus and had the mask it was tied around the back of her head underneath her ponytail and it was quite tight around her face.”

The father believed his daughter was exempt from Ocean Breeze Elementary School’s mask mandate because of her disability. Sofia has an enlarged tongue and breathes through her mouth, which makes wearing a face mask potentially dangerous. The father said that Sofia has an individual education plan at the school that caters to her special needs.

“Medically, she could aspirate. She could asphyxiate all sorts of medical things that could happen and because of her breathing because of her enlarged tongue could cause seizures,” Steele said. (Read more from “Disturbing: School Tied Mask on to Little Girl With Down Syndrome for Weeks” HERE)

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WATCH: Student Arrested for Refusing To Wear Mask to School

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A 16-year-old girl in Wyoming was arrested Thursday at her school after she refused to wear a mask on school grounds, she and her father said.

Grace Smith, a junior at Laramie High School, told state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, R-Cheyenne, in an interview posted online, that police placed her in handcuffs for trespassing after she was suspended for not following the school’s mask mandate and refused to leave school grounds.

Smith recorded video of herself getting handcuffed, which her father, Andy Smith, shared on social media. The video shows the interactions between Smith and police officers were polite.

“When asked if they’re arresting her for [not wearing] her mask, they’ll say, ‘No, we’re arresting her for her violation of failure to comply in accordance with their trespassing ordinance,'” Andy Smith told Bouchard.

Smith said that she’s faced three separate two-day suspensions over refusing to mask up and received $1,000 in trespassing fines for refusing to leave the campus, saying that she had a right to be on school grounds to continue her education.

(Read more from “Student Arrested for Refusing To Wear Mask to School” HERE)

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Florida Withholds Funds From Districts With Mask Mandates

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Florida’s Department of Education announced that it was withholding funds from two school districts over their mask mandates.

Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran announced Monday that the department has withheld funds in the amount of monthly school board member salaries from Alachua and Broward county districts for implementing mask mandates that parents do not have the option to opt out of, violating a state order.

The withholding of funds will continue monthly “until each school board complies with state law and rules,” the statement said.

The announcement comes as the state battles with school districts over imposing mask mandates, in defiance of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). As of last week, 10 districts accounting for more than half of the state’s enrollment have imposed mask mandates.

Earlier this month, Florida’s board of education voted to investigate Broward and Alachua and several weeks ago requested a list of annual salaries of all school board members in both counties. The Florida Department of Education said it would be withholding 1/12th of the amount each month from the district’s funds. (Read more from “Florida Withholds Funds From Districts With Mask Mandates” HERE)

Photo Credit: https://foto.wuestenigel.com/female-holding-a-bunch-of-used-face-masks/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/30478819@N08/50632488756

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Study Finds Mask Mandates Have No Substantial Effect on Slowing COVID-19 Spread

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With students finally headed back to school for the fall, debate is raging nationwide over whether K-12 children should be required to wear face masks to reduce the spread of COVID-19. But a peer-reviewed study suggests that mask use and requirements during the pandemic had no substantial impact on reducing the spread of the virus.

Researchers from the University of Louisville examined COVID-19 case growth and mask use in the United States, comparing states with mask mandates to states without, and found that “mask mandates and use likely did not affect COVID-19 case growth.”

“For our study, we wanted to determine if effects of mask mandates and use were observable in the general population,” Dr. Damian Guerra, an assistant professor of biology at the University of Louisville, said. “Essentially, did the theory of mask effectiveness hold up on a population-wide level?”

Guerra observed that given the widespread adoption of mask requirements as a COVID-19 mitigation strategy, there was a need to evaluate the effectiveness of that policy. He told TheBlaze in an email that previous studies on mask-wearing using case studies, mannequin experiments, or theoretical models had produced conflicting results, but his study used states without mask mandates as a control group to better gauge the effectiveness of the policy. (Read more from “Study Finds Mask Mandates Have No Substantial Effect on Slowing COVID-19 Spread” HERE)

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DeSantis Blasts Mask Mandates: ‘Piece of Cloth Is Not Going to Stop the Aerosols’

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) dismissed the need for mask mandates in the Sunshine State on Wednesday, emphasizing the importance of personal liberty while reminding reporters of scientific research showing cloth and surgical masks are relatively ineffective in blocking the transmission of exhaled aerosols.

During a press conference in The Villages on Wednesday during which the governor announced the opening of another monoclonal antibody treatment center, a reporter asked DeSantis to explain his position on the role masks play in addressing the pandemic.

“They should not be mandated. No government entity should force you to do that. That is your choice. If that’s something you believe provides you protection, no one is going to say anything to you. But that should not, absolutely not be mandated,” DeSantis said, adding that such mandates “obviously” cannot occur in the state of Florida under his leadership and that it is his view that masking should remain a personal choice. . .

“I will say that from a scientific perspective, you have, even some of these experts now are acknowledging, with an aerosolized virus, a piece of cloth is not going to stop the aerosols,” DeSantis said:

When they started doing the masks last year, the thought was it was respiratory droplets, and so the respiratory droplets, maybe you could intercept some. When you’re starting to talk about aerosol transmission — something that’s very highly contagious — just understand. An N95, a medical mask, you know, that will intercept some of the aerosols. But just a piece of cloth is not going to do that. Osterholm, one of Biden’s advisers, has acknowledged that. You got other people who are acknowledging that.

(Read more from “DeSantis Blasts Mask Mandates: ‘Piece of Cloth Is Not Going to Stop the Aerosols’” HERE)

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