Teachers who lost a bid at the circuit court level to overturn the Palm Beach County School District’s campus reopening plan will appeal the Sept. 29 decision.
Boca Raton attorney Barry Silver said he was in the process of appealing the ruling by Palm Beach Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley to the Fourth District Court of Appeal. Silver’s initial complaint on behalf of several local teachers contends that the district’s decision to initiate in-person learning puts many educators with pre-existing conditions at a high health risk during the coronavirus pandemic.
“We intend to file an appeal of the judge’s misguided decision,” Silver told the Florida Record on Friday. “... The school district has been contemptuous of teachers and teachers’ lives.”
The original complaint contends that the district’s requirement that teachers return to in-person instruction violates a provision of the Florida Constitution that guarantees a safe and secure learning environment as well as a high-quality education. The district’s conduct violates due-process rights as well, the complaint says, as teachers with documented health concerns were not granted exemptions to the district policy.
Though Judge Kelley expressed sympathy for the plaintiffs’ concerns, he did not find a basis for upending the district’s policy.
“In this case, the School Board of Palm Beach County, in discharging its legal authority and in compliance with the commissioner of education’s emergency order, developed its plan for reopening schools for in-person instruction,” Kelley wrote. “This court cannot second-guess the plan developed and implemented by the school board.”
The district released a statement saying it respects the judge’s decision.
“The essence of the court’s ruling is that it is not appropriate for a court to overrule a school board’s decisions about reopening, appropriate safety protocols, or which teachers should get to work remotely,” the statement emailed to the Record states. “This litigation is proof of the difficult situation created by the pandemic. We are all in this together and hope our students and teachers have a successful year, despite the challenges.”
Silver called the district’s policy counterproductive because it would result in many good teachers leaving their positions because it forces them to choose between a profession they are dedicated to and health risks that could be fatal.
“The educational quality has substantially declined by (the district) telling teachers that they had to quit or face death,” he said. “So some of the best and brightest teachers are gone.”
In-person learning, especially at the lower grades with younger students, inevitably results in physical contact between students and teachers, leading to increased health risks for older teachers, according to Silver.