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At least two lawsuits have been filed challenging the Governor’s executive order that requires districts to allow parents to opt out of school mask mandates.

At least one district is pushing ahead with a mask plan that requires a medical professional’s signature to opt-out.

The school district surrounding the State Capitol is pushing ahead with a mask mandate, and only allowing students to opt-out with a doctor’s note.

“Why would you not err on the side of caution? I know it may be a burden to some, but at the end of the day the goal is to keep our children out of the hospital,” said Superintendent of Leon County Schools Rocky Hanna.

The Governor’s Office tells us it believes the district’s policy conflicts with the Department of Health’s rule, which puts the question of masking in the hands of parents.

Districts that run afoul of the opt-out policy could lose funding.

The Governor’s Office indicated that would likely come in the form of cutting salaries of superintendents and school board members.

Also in the works, a lawsuit filed in state court alleging the Governor’s executive order violates the state constitution, which requires schools to be safe.

“Delta is ravaging kids. Kids are in the hospital. Kids are dying right now. And that’s contrary to you know, COVID Alpha,” said Charles Gallagher, an attorney representing the group of parents named in the suit.

It also claims the order violates school boards’ constitutional authority to operate and control schools in their district.

“People elect these school board members for a reason, because they are local, they are on the ground and they have acumen relative to their own schools and what’s going on there. And they’re being denied that. They’re denying those schools and school boards the right to govern themselves and have oversight over their own schools,” said Gallagher.

The lawsuit doesn’t get a hearing until Friday, which means the mask mandate ban will be in effect for at least the first week of school.

Whether it makes it to week two, is up to the judge.

A study cited by the CDC found Florida schools without mask mandates had case rates 42 percent higher than those without in the first semester of the 2020 school year.

The Governor’s Office however cites DOH data analyzing the entire school year, which found only about a five percent higher case rate at schools without mandates.