Photo: CBS 12
Palm Beach County's schools superintendent is thanking the school board for voting to mandate masks without parental opt-outs, despite that being a violation of state law.
"There's at least a couple of gentlemen in Tallahassee that probably like to punch me in the nose right now, but that's okay."
Michael Burke may be referring to Gov. Ron DeSantis and state Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, who have told school districts to give parents the right to allow their kids to go to class maskless.
The superintendent made the comments during a speech to the Chamber of Commerce of the Palm Beaches this morning.
"With the rise in cases in our community, up over 18 percent positivity...we are seeing children, unfortunately, go to the pediatric wards of the hospitals. And the board did what they felt like they had to do to protect our students and staff and went ahead and made that tough decision. So thank you school board."
The members of the Chamber applauded his comments and one woman had a question as to whether there was anything they could do to help the school district. That brought on a tongue-in-cheek, yet potentially self-aware response from the superintendent.
"Send lawyers, guns and money."
Afterward, he said they could keep the guns, but the lawyers and money might come in handy.
Burke said they do have resources from the federal government, which has offered to help school districts that lose funding from states for not allowing parents to opt their kids out of mask mandates.