What’s With This Survey On Face Coverings?

Over the weekend, the Florida PTA released a “Survey on Face Coverings” in a Facebook post.

They claimed that the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) had sent them the questions and they had created the Google form to collect parent input. The input, the said, would then be shared with the FLDOE.

The survey asked what district you lived in, whether your child was attending brick and mortar schools, “how worried you were that your child would get the coronavirus” at their school and whether there was a “face covering policy.” There was also a question that asked whether specific public health measures (social distancing, mask requirements, sanitation procedures) or “work requirements to do your job” had an impact on “your feelings about sending your children to full-time in-person school.” The survey also asked whether parents would be comfortable if their district’s face covering policy was eliminated:

 

Instantly, concerns were raised regarding the survey. For example, it was noted immediately that the survey could be filled out an unlimited number of times by a single person (this appears to have been fixed now). Others felt the questions were biased and feared the data would be used to end local mask mandates in schools. Still others questioned why the FLDOE wouldn’t simply ask districts to survey their own families. After all, from the beginning, the FLDOE insisted that school reopening plans should be locally driven decisions.

We, also, had a few questions:

• With Covid cases once again on the rise, why is the FLDOE surveying parent opinions regarding their local district face covering policies?
• Shouldn’t local face covering policies be created under advice of public health officials, not the FLDOE?
• What is the real purpose of this survey?

This reminds us of the time (on September 6th) when Governor DeSantis asked local government officials to submit “a complete response of information in writing” about any orders, including “regulations, rules, commands or restrictions on persons, businesses or other entities” related to COVID-19. He also asked for “the number of citations and the numbers and amount of fines or penalties, as well as ‘specific information on any arrests and imprisonments due to violations of any such order.’” Then, less than 3 weeks later, DeSantis completely eliminated local governments’ ability to enforce their mandatory face mask ordinances and suspended all previously imposed fines and penalties.

Will Governor DeSantis and the FLDOE use the results of this flawed FLPTA survey to eliminate our local districts’ ability to enforce CDC recommended face covering requirements in our schools? We don’t believe crowd sourcing is a good way to determine public health policies. With Covid cases once again on the rise, shouldn’t local public health measures, like mask requirements, be determined by local public health officials and not public opinion?

In the meantime, #wearyourmask, #washyourhands, avoid crowds and #practicesocialdistancing.