Florida teachers union calls out state leadership

CBS4 | By Giselle Thomas | September 2, 2021

It’s been nearly one month since United Faculty of Florida sent a letter demanding safety for Florida’s college and university students, faculty, and staff. President Andrew Gothard says they haven’t heard anything back.

“We sent letters to Governor DeSantis, Chancellor Criser III, and the Florida Board of Governors, as well as Commissioner Corcoran and the Florida Board of Education and we did not receive responses to any of those letters unfortunately, said Gothard.”

For five straight weeks, alachua county has reported more than one thousand new covid-19 cases. earlier this week, the florida department of education says they will withhold money from the alachua county school district for requiring masks.

“The only thing stopping Universities and colleges in Florida from doing the same thing are truly just a lack of will power and at it’s core a lack of real leadership,” Gothard said.

Currently there are 12 counties in Florida with mask mandates for children w/ medical exemption.

Gothard says that despite the pushback, Alachua County Public Schools and some other districts have gotten from the state, he will continue to push for more safety measures at UF and other colleges and universities around Florida.

“If Florida’s leaders unfortunately cannot see their way to taking those kind of actions we’re gonna fight them as hard as we can, and as far as we can. To make sure that Florida is not harmed by bad decision making in the short or the long term,”

The University of Florida says they are following guidance by the Florida Board of Governors.

“We’re following that guidance so that said. We are saying that masks are expected inside UF buildings and its great to see that in fact the overwhelming majority of people you see inside buildings are in fact wearing masks,” said Steve Orlando UF Spokesperson.