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- [Rob] Coming up next, more school districts defied the state government over mask mandates.

We'll talk with the Hillsborough school board member who proposed the mask requirement.

A local military veteran wants the US to embrace Afghan refugees and Florida still is not fixed its unemployment system, all this and more, next on Florida This Week.

(upbeat music) - Welcome back in the face of an alarming increase in COVID cases among people 18 and younger, several school boards around the state are defying the DeSantis administration over the issue of mandatory mask wearing.

At an emergency meeting of the Hillsborough school board this week, members voted five to two to require that masks be worn by students unless they have a note from a doctor allowing them to opt out.

The vote came after him passion statements on both sides of the mask debate.

- In the last few weeks alone, total hospitalizations due to COVID have increased over 300% and 25% of all the pediatric related admissions during the entire pandemic were in July, 2021.

- It may make you feel better that you're doing something, but sometimes doing nothing takes more courage.

- [Rob] Hillsborough district joined with Miami Dade Palm beach, Broward and Alachua County's requiring students to wear facial coverings.

And that sets up a possible conflict with the DeSantis administration which has threatened to take action against school districts that require the safety measure.

- You are free to recommend, you can encourage whatever you want, but I just don't think you can override the rights and the decisions of the parents.

- [Rob] The possible sanctions against local officials brought this reaction from the Biden administration.

- I find it interesting that some of the very people were saying that who hold government positions are people who are threatening that if a school teacher asks the student, if they've been vaccinated, or if a principal says that everyone in my school should wear a mask or the school board goes for it, that governor will nullify that, that governor has the authority to say, you can't do that.

I find that totally counterintuitive and quite frankly, disingenuous.

- In Florida, I believe that that's the parents' decision.

Joe Biden thinks the federal government should come in, overrule the parents and force these young kids to wear these masks.

And you gotta wonder, where are your priorities?

- [Rob Meantime, the quick collapse of the US backed government of Afghanistan created a crisis for US central command based in Tampa, which controls middle east operations for the US military, the commander of CENTCOM general, Frank McKenzie traveled to cobble this week, where he inspected efforts to secure Kansai international airport and deal with the ongoing evacuation flights of us and partners civilians.

McKenzie met with senior Taliban leaders in Doha on Sunday, where he said he cautioned them against interference in the evacuation and said that any attack by them would be met with overwhelming force.

- Hillsborough county school board member Nadia Combs made the motion to reinstate the districts mask requirement.

She was one of five members to support that change.

And Nadia Comb, Comb joins us now in the studio, welcome to Florida this week.

So the governor's administration is putting a lot of pressure on school boards, especially Broward and Alachua right now giving them 24 hours to rescind their mask mandates.

I suspect you are next and if not, they're gonna withdraw or withhold money for your pay and for the superintendents pay in some counties.

What do you make of that?

What do you make of that pressure?

- Well I think first and foremost, we have to think what's best for our students and our schools and so for us as a local entity, we know that our district and our district numbers are not sustainable.

We currently have 620 teachers, faculty, staff out.

We have 2,000 students who are currently positive with COVID.

So we know that's not sustainable.

So we really have to do what's best for our school district and keep our schools open.

And that means having a mass mandate.

- Do you fear of your salary.

- I don't fear my salary because I'm here to serve the people and to serve the students.

And I'm always gonna do what's best for children.

I'm not going to worry what's best for politics on either side.

My job is to think what's best for children.

And I know after all the time that students have been out of school that they want to be in school, they want to be open.

You can imagine the backlash we would receive if we closed our district, instead of asking for a mass mandate.

- The Governor says it's up to parents to decide whether or not to wear masks, and it's not up to the local school board.

And he said, it's not up to president Biden.

What do you say at that.. - Well, I say that last year, we had a total of 35,000 quarantines, this year, day eight or nine, we're looking at 14,000 quarantines.

So we need to mitigate that kids want to be in school.

And we know that if both children, if a child is tested positive and they have a mask on and the child next to them has a mask on, then they won't be quarantined.

So our goal right now, we look around at our hospitals and we are, the hospitals are completely filled.

Some hospitals no longer being able to take patients.

We want to make sure as a community that we're not just thinking about ourselves right now, we're thinking about our community.

- These meetings where school boards decide to have masks, mask mandates can be pretty tense.

I'm wondering what kind of feedback you're getting.

And have you had threats against your decision to go for a mask mandate?

- Yeah.

I mean, I've received a lot of positive emails and texts, but I have received some threats.

I have received some really cruel, you know, emails, but what I try to do is I try to respond to each one of those, the negative and the positive.

And I try to call people and explain to them my reasoning, you know, we are, you know, we are at the heightened of the crisis.

I know that people are tired of wearing masks, but if you look at the overall, the last two years, you know, we are at the highest peak right now and our children deserve to be in schools.

And so if we continue, you know, I mean, I look at a school in south Tampa, they have 14 teachers out.

So if we continue to do that, you know, our schools will close.

I mean, as a matter of fact, next week, I'll be subbing and serving lunches.

That's how understaffed we are right now.

And that's how many faculty and staff we currently have on quarantine or who have tested positive.

- I've seen some of the school board meetings and some parents say there's no science that shows that masks work.

What did the scientists tell you?

- Well, all the doctors and the physicians to came to the meeting said, you know, it does mitigate that.

And I did speak to our COVID commander today.

And they do anticipate that the quarantine numbers are gonna decrease and they do anticipate less faculty will be out.

So if you look at Broward county who basically they opened the same time we did as far as faculty and staff, we have 100% more faculty and staff out now.

So I do think mask do mitigate it, you know, especially for people who are unvaccinated.

This Delta variant is very different than what we were dealing with before.

And you know, we're not asking for kids to be masked all year.

I know as a former teacher, the social and emotional impact, the mental part of having to wear a mask, we're looking at let's mask students.

Let's keep our students safe.

Let's keep our schools open because that's what's gonna be best for our children.

- Do you think the governor is considering the safety of students as he says.

He talks about the freedom not to wear masks.

- You know, I think that it's become very divisive in this country and I think it's really sad that we're looking at a mask as as a sign for me, somebody who's not political, I didn't get into the school board for the politics, I got into the school board because I love children and I love our district.

So I think, you know, let the local governments make that decision.

I was voted in because my local representatives believed in me.

And so let us make those decisions because each district is going to be different and the needs are different.

So as much as the governor doesn't want federal overreach, we also don't want state overreach.

- Nadia Combs, thank you for coming by the floor, Florida This Week.

- Thank you so much.

- Well, in a moment, we'll hear from a Hillsborough school parent about the mask mandate.

(upbeat music) Meeting this week on mask requirements in the Hillsborough county schools brought out strong opinions from parents on all sides.

Veronica McDonald's is the mother of four children, three of which are in Hillsborough county schools.

And she's also an education advocate and a PTA member.

And Veronica welcome to Florida This Week.

- Thanks for having me.

- What did you think of the decision by the Hillsborough school district to mandate masks this week?

- I fully support and I'm so proud of our school board members for making the decision that they did in light of our growing numbers we had at the time, I believe over 10,000 students in quarantine and it just isn't sustainable.

We need our kids in school.

We need them to be able to learn after a year, like last year, where we put together some crisis schooling and it worked for some, it didn't work for others and we just want to get every student back in school safely.

So I think they made the right choice.

- As you know, some parents object saying, look, my kid has the freedom not to wear a mask.

They, some parents think that masks are dangerous, that they contain contaminants or kids can't breathe through masks.

I'm wondering what your kids saying about masks and what do you think about that argument from other parents?

- I think that I actually was just reading an article today that a lot of the anti-masks parents referenced a certain study that was done out of a testing center in Gainesville.

And the article today was talking about how that study is basically they're debunking it because there's a lot of things that weren't right in the way the study was written.

So my children have no problem wearing masks, my oldest is 11, she wears a KN95 to school.

My six nine-year-old who's in fourth grade, wears a KN95 to school.

They, I don't have to force them.

They don't complain of any kind of mask fatigue.

They wear it because they know that it helps protect them.

And they're also protecting their friends in schools.

- So the big question for everybody is the safety of kids in schools.

So most kids now in Hillsborough schools are gonna be wearing masks.

They're gonna be some kids that opt out.

They get that letter from a doctor, that note from a doctor, are you convinced that you're gonna be sending your kids to a safe place when the school resumes on Monday?

- I do, because under the previous opt out, I know that our teachers had to treat masks as if they were invisible.

They weren't even allowed to address a student who maybe forgot to pull their mask up at lunchtime.

Even though they know they're a mask student, they weren't even allowed to give them a gentle reminder to put their mask back on, they had to ignore it.

So now schools are taking a stronger stance.

Teachers are also taking a stronger stance and they're able to tell students, you need to put your mask up.

You need to put over your nose.

I can give you a mask.

So I do believe that they're gonna have a lot less stress at schools for teachers that are having kids going in and out of quarantine and having to upload work on canvas, keeping their kids in schools is the goal and we want to do that safely as safely as possible.

- The government in Tallahassee is taking a hard line against school districts, like Hillsborough that have imposed the mask mandate and has suggested that some school board members and school superintendents are not gonna get receive their salary, the state's going to take it away.

What do you think about the hard line taken by Tallahassee where they say they are essentially in control of the mask question?

- So I will say that our Florida board of education who is, and, you know, with commissioner Corcoran, they're the ones who have really led this along with DeSantis.

And I want to remind you that our board of education and our commissioner are appointed positions by our governor.

So these are not elected officials.

Now our school boards are elected officials and a lot of them are elected in my area.

My school board member was elected by a 61% majority, their rep there, they were elected to represent me in my voice and all of the parents in their area.

And that's the same as Nadia Combs who was elected, I think, elected on a 65% majority.

So in order for the state government to basically circumvent local control, is a huge problem here.

We wanna keep, you know, the control of localities with the elected officials in that locality and the state government is saying, no, you can't do that and it's basically a big power grab.

- Well, Veronica McDonald's thanks a lot.

Good luck for the school year.

And thanks for coming on Florida This Week.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- Well, one local Marine veteran thinks the US government owes their Afghan allies refuge in the US and we'll hear about his plan when we come back.

(upbeat music) Well, the rapid collapse of the Afghan government this week by the Taliban has created a massive refugee crisis as the US military withdraws from the country, many Afghan allies who help US forces who are desperate to leave the country, Marine veteran, Kevin Mullica spent two tours in Afghanistan and befriended numerous Afghans, and he wants the US government to do more.

Kevin, welcome to Florida This Week.

- Thank you for having me.

I'm glad to be here.

- Kevin, we're hearing about a slowdown in the number of US flights out of Kansai international airport, there had been some promise of five to 9,000 people being able to be airlifted out per day.

That number has slowed down considerably from the promise.

What do you make of that?

- I honestly believe it has to do with refugee camps and the difficulties of getting visas.

There aren't enough people that I think are properly vetted, you know, within the confines of what I is required to get on one of those flights.

I don't think it's about the flights being unavailable.

I think it's about political red tape that's in the way of getting people on those flights.

- Tell us about why you're adamant about this.

Tell us about your experience with the Afghans in country when you served over there, what was your relationship with the Afghans and why do you feel so strongly about this?

- There were a lot of people who answered the call in their home to aid US and coalition forces.

We had locals who, some fed us, you know, they cook for us.

They were merchants.

They made clothes and things like that.

Others who offered to be translators and some who were intelligence operatives, they knew full well, if they were caught or captured that the punishment would be death.

And they still chose to answer the call, to try and provide a better life for their family.

And that is no different than veterans here in the states.

We want to do better.

We want to provide a better world for our friends and our family and the people that we love.

And if we abandoned them now, we have failed on a grand international scale that I don't think I ever imagined I would see in my lifetime.

- Right now, we're seeing the Taliban hold back a little bit, there has been some violence on the part of the Taliban, but I think it might be fair to say they're showing some restraint right now.

Do you trust them to provide, - No - Safety for the people that want to exit?

- Absolutely no.

Generally when people show you who they are, I tend to believe them and in the past 20 years, the Taliban have show us a lot of different things.

Restraint was not one of them.

So trusting them suddenly to all right, well, you know, let's give everybody a chance just doesn't seem like a good bet on our part.

- So Steven Miller, the ex-aid to former president Trump says Republicans should reject the efforts to expand Special Immigrant Visas or SIVs that would allow Afghan refugees into the US.

He said that they should be resettled in the region.

I'm not trying to turn this into a political discussion about president Trump or Steven Miller, but I'm just wondering, there are some people in the US that oppose resettling Afghan refugees here.

What would you say to them?

- I understand that there is a fear-based response to bringing refugees in from a war torn region.

I know that in the US we generally, as a culture are very weary of anything that you can link the word terrorist to.

And a lot of people find themselves just afraid right now.

And when you act from a place of fear, as opposed to a place of compassion, you'll generally find yourself shutting people out.

There is not a good reason to keep honest, innocent people out of this country who want to flee for their lives.

- This Sunday, you're helping to organize an event of rally in downtown Tampa in hoping to encourage people to support the bringing of refugees from Afghanistan here.

Tell us what's gonna happen at the rally.

- So we're asking, it's gonna be hot.

So please bring water, bring your friends.

There's, it's outdoor, so you don't need a mask, but they are encouraged.

But largely what we're trying to do is be the squeaky wheel, make as much noise as we can, and encourage and pressure our elected officials to support legislation that removes caps on refugees coming out of the region that reduces the political red tape that stifles the visa or a refugee process.

And to open up more military bases and government buildings as temporary housing for refugees as they come into the country, we have a moral obligation to these refugees that we created over the course of the last two decades.

- Kevin Mullica thank you very much.

Thank you for coming on the program.

- Appreciate it.

Have a great day, be safe, - And the problems of Florida's unemployment website continue and we'll hear from someone who is trying to help coming up next.

(upbeat music) When the pandemic hit last year, Florida's unemployment system crashed depriving tens of thousands of Floridians have benefits, 16 months later, problems continue including cyber attacks and identity theft.

Vanessa Brito is a political activist from south Florida who's working with people who qualify, but can't get the help they need and Vanessa, welcome to Florida This Week.

- Thank you so much for inviting me I'm happy to be here.

- What's the range of problems we're still saying with Florida's unemployment system.

- So 16 months ago, we started with a system that was already broken to begin with, and wasn't prepared to handle the surge of applications that we've had, but 16 months ago, the only problem we had was really people having the inability to sign in, to connect and process their application.

Now, over a year later, we have that surge of applications compounded by quarterly changes and delays in payments and delays and implementations of programs and extension.

So as every week goes by, and it's almost, I feel like every Monday I wake up and I expect to see a new problem, you know, with the DEO, with connect.

And as we implement new changes with all of these federal program extensions and changes, we see that a new problem arises, or if somebody, so when we had our issues with identity verification in January, many states saw a surge of fraudulent applications being filed in other states, right?

So Theo went ahead and implemented a security protocol where people had to go ahead and verify their identity.

Well, that backfired on DL because our system wasn't ready to implement those protocols.

So it applied to far more than the population of is targeting.

So everybody got locked out of their account.

And the same thing has happened now with tactic counts.

So people who have been hacked, yes, need to verify their identity, but other people who have had no issues in the past are now having to do it because every time our state puts a bandaid another problem another problem surges.

So it's almost like, it's a cycle.

- People still in the queue?

Are people still waiting for their initial unemployment benefits?

Is there still a backup?

- Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

So we're seeing, I deal with three types of people.

So they're the people who have issues on a regular basis every week something happens, you know, something that takes two, three weeks, maybe a month to fix, members people who went through December and were okay, you know, they waited a little bit to get their payments.

And then in December with the gap, from the sec, from the first Cares Act extension, they kind of got stuck.

So they're in a pending status and their plan hasn't changed or been paid out since December 27th.

So that's one, but then there's other folks who applied in March, April, May of last year, or actually went back to work and had to apply in November when we saw another huge surge of COVID cases and businesses started to shut down who applied and are still wait.

So those are the people that I'm really focused on that are still, you know, they're still waiting for benefits to be approved, but in the process.

they've lost their cars.

They've been evicted because for whatever reason, they don't qualify for the federal eviction forum.

So there's so many things that we've seen over the last couple of months that one state agency has kind of dropped the ball on really keeping people afloat.

Right?

And there are folks that messaged me that have been waiting for over a year that have been locked out or their application is still under review.

That's an incredible indication of how bad the backlog is, how terrible the delay is, but also how inefficient the system is.

Right?

- And what grade would you give the state of Florida for its operation of the system?

I read as a quote for a person who's in the connect system who works for her.

Who said, "It may take five years to fix the unemployment system."

What kind of grade would you give this state?

- Look, if there was anything less than, you know, be low enough, I'd give it, you know, that's what I did it.

I mean, it's, you know, when, you know, they're in a remedial course at this point, there's nothing.

I don't think that connect can be fixed.

Right?

I think the coding, the system is so old and archaic that in order for unemployment system to function, the way it's supposed to, which is to help people stay afloat, pay their bills until they find an adequate job, is to just start over and implement a new system.

That's what I think is necessary.

I think it would probably cost more to fix it because as you fix our pay code things break, and we've seen that with the hackers, you know, who are breaking into our system, so we try to fix it.

But once you fix something, something else breaks.

That's the problem right now.

- Vanessa Brito, thank you for coming on and explaining the problems in the system.

- Thank you so much for having me.

(upbeat music) - Thanks for joining us.

You can view this in past shows online at wedu.org and also on the PBS app and Florida This Week is now available as a podcast, you can subscribe to it on our website or wherever you get your podcasts.

Finally, here's a remake of the song, "The Weight" written by guitarist, Robbie Robertson, featuring Ringo Starr, and Robertson and musicians from five continents.

It's part of the playing for change project and was recorded during the early days of the pandemic.

Stay safe, take care of each other.

We'll see you next week.

(indistinct) ♪ Pulled into Nazareth ♪ ♪ I was feelin' about half past dead ♪ ♪ I just need some space ♪ ♪ Where I could lay my head ♪ ♪ Hey mister, can you you tell me ♪ ♪ Where a man might find a bed ♪ ♪ He just grinned and shook my hand ♪ ♪ No was all he said ♪ ♪ Take a load off fanny ♪ ♪ Take a load off free ♪ ♪ Take a load off fanny ♪ ♪ And you put the load right on me.

♪ (upbeat music) - [Announcer] Florida This Week.

It's a production of WEDU who was solely responsible for its content.

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