Broward School Board emergency meeting Friday

Fort Lauderdale, Florida – Broward’s School Board will hold an emergency meeting Friday to review and possibly revise their safety protocols.

Being considered is that all employees, vendors, and visitors will be required to wear face coverings while indoors at any district school, facility, or vehicle. If accepted it would go into effect on Monday, January 3rd.

Masks for students would remain optional but strongly encouraged.

Beginning Monday, Jan. 6, all adults entering county schools, vendors, and visitors, along with bus drivers and bus attendants will have to wear masks.

Masks will also be required for all spectators at school athletic events. Masks will not be required for students, but they are strongly urged to wear them.

According to Dr. Lisa Gwynn, Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and Public Health Sciences at the University of Miami, there’s a very real concern for kids when it comes to the Omicron variant.

“If parents do not use send their kids to school with masks, the infection rates are just going to go higher and higher,” says Dr. Gwynn.

Neither school district cannot require students to wear masks due to a law that went into effect last November.

This school year, school districts were not allowed to provide intermittent virtual school options to students due to the Florida Department of Education’s emergency orders expiring this past summer and the new law.

According to the Broward school district, they will continue to work with local health officials and follow guidance from the CDC.