Photo Courtesy Of NBC
Black parents have responded to Fla. Gov. Ron DeSantis telling their children to remove their masks at a press conference.
In an exclusive interview with WFLA, the parents expressed how upset they were with DeSantis for addressing their children the way he did.
“I would tell (the governor) to stop bullying kids. It’s fine if you don’t want to wear masks, but encourage others to do what they feel is safe,” Kevin Brown Sr. told the news outlet. His son, Kevin Brown Jr., was one of seven Hillsborough County High School students that the politician spoke to during his conference at the University of South Florida on Mar. 2. There, he insisted they take their face coverings off because he claimed they didn’t need them. He visit USF to announce
a $2 million grant for cybersecurity education.“You do not have to wear those masks,” he said. “I mean, please take them off. Honestly, it’s not doing anything, and we’ve gotta stop with this COVID theater. So if you want to wear it, fine, but this is ridiculous.”
Brown Jr. said he kept his mask on because he felt he had a right to do so, irrespective of the governor’s demand.
“I was thinking I don’t know if I should take it off or leave it on cause it’s the governor. He asked us to take it off, but I thought about it, and it’s my right to have my mask on.”
However, his father told his son that wearing a mask should be his choice.
“His mother tells him to wear the mask. I tell him it’s his choice, so he made that choice, and the governor has no right to tell no kid or no one who they can or can’t wear a mask. He doesn’t have that right.”
Another parent of one of the students, Dawn Marshall, told WFLA said she was shocked at Gov. DeSantis’ reaction to them wearing masks.
“I’m responsible for him, and I told him to wear that mask,” she said about her son, Eric Marshall. “It’s just shocking that the governor told these kids take off your mask. He pretty much said, ‘take off your mask.’ It’s stupid. [Your] parents don’t matter… I was upset, very upset.”
Her son said he felt “a little” pressured by the governor to remove his face covering because an adult made a demand of him.
“It was more of pressure of an adult figure asking me to do something, and it’s just like alright,” he said.
Hillsborough County High School Superintendent Addison Davis released a statement saying, “Our students should be valued and celebrated. It is a student and parents’ choice to protect their health in a way they feel most appropriate.”
The former Republican Governor of Florida and a Democrat in Congress, Charlie Crist, tweeted a similar sentiment.
“Young people in our state deserve to be treated with respect,” he wrote.