Ron DeSantis Gets Irritated With Teen students Wearing Face Masks In Photo Op With Him. Calls it "Covid Theater"

[CoffeeTiger 5,228]

When Conservatives say they don't care if people wear masks and just don't want to be made to wear themselves, they apparently weren't talking about DeSantis who seems to get angry with people who he sees wearing face masks. Especially when they are standing with him for a photo op. He told the teen students standing behind him to take off their masks, and when a few didn't comply he tells them they're just performing "covid theater" 

 

Kudos to those kids for doing what they feel is best and not cowing to the immature demands of the Dictator of the "Free State" of Florida.

 

https://www.al.com/news/2022/03/florida-gov-ron-desantis-to-teens-wearing-masks-stop-with-this-covid-theater.html

At a news conference Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis expressed irritation that a group of high school students standing behind him were wearing masks and urged them to remove the face coverings.

 

Before taking the lectern at the University of South Florida, where he announced a $20 million state investment in cybersecurity workforce education, DeSantis asked why people wearing masks were standing behind him.

Then he approached the students, who are studying cybersecurity in high school.

 

 

“You don’t have to wear those masks,” DeSantis said. “Please take them off.”

 

 

Some of the students laughed. DeSantis appeared to remain annoyed. “Honestly, this is not doing anything,” he said. “We got to stop with this COVID theater.” The students didn’t respond.

 

 

“So if you want to wear it, fine, but this is ridiculous,” the governor said before turning around and sighing.

 

 

Two students took their masks off, but three left them on.

 

 

DeSantis has previously said Florida is “the freest state in these United States” and individuals should be left to decide for themselves how to respond to COVID-19.

 

 

DeSantis spokesperson Christina Pushaw said the governor wanted “to make sure everyone is aware of the facts and data now, so they can feel free and comfortable without a mask.”

 

 

“As the governor said, “You can wear them if you want” but there’s “no evidence” they make any difference,” she said in an email. “That has been clear for a long time, and the data informed our state’s official guidance. Following Florida, the CDC has even stopped recommending mask wearing for most Americans.”

 

 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s mask rules have changed throughout the 2-year pandemic, and last week came the most relaxed guidelines yet: Americans can now take off their masks indoors in areas where COVID-19 is no longer a threat to overwhelm hospitals.

 

 

The agency crafted a three color-coded system to help people determine what precautions they should take in their counties. Green areas are in the clear, while those in yellow areas who are at high risk if they get infected should consult their doctors.

 

 

Orange areas are considered at high risk of transmission and people there are advised to wear masks. Most of Florida and all of Tampa Bay are currently colored orange — including Hillsborough County.

 

 

During the announcement and responding unprompted to Tuesday night’s State of the Union address by President Joe Biden, DeSantis came back to criticize “forced” masking of kids.

 

 

Two weeks ago, DeSantis said, guests at the State of the Union address were going to be required to wear masks. He said he did not think science changed, but that politics changed it. He joked that Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was in the witness protection program these days.

 

 

“They changed that because they knew it would be a terrible visual to have all these people there suffering in masks while the rest of the country is out there living their lives,” DeSantis said. “Now it’s like we all want to be like Florida.”

 

 

The high school students appeared to be unfazed by their encounter with the governor.

William Vu and Ananya Sista, both seniors at Tampa’s Middleton High School, chose to keep their masks on.

 

 

Vu, 18, shrugged.

 

 

“I think he’s just following the policy he’s putting out,” he said. “And we did what we wanted.”

 

 

The two said they were still excited to be there for the announcement of the initiative, which would expand training opportunities in cybersecurity to middle, high school and two-year college students, similar to other investments in workforce education. Currently, DeSantis said, Florida has 22,000 unfulfilled jobs in cybersecurity.

 

 

While at similar announcements recently, the governor has frequently chided some four-year degrees as useless, calling them “zombie studies.” But on Wednesday, where USF board of trustees chairperson Will Weatherford called him “America’s governor,” he held back from such criticism.

 

 

DeSantis mentioned how state schools like USF “hold the line” on tuition and fields like cybersecurity often require four-year degrees.

 

 

He said the new state investment will be dispersed through the Florida Center for Cybersecurity, which has been housed at USF since 2014. It will pay to train teachers and purchase new equipment to bring cybersecurity instruction to younger students in Hillsborough, Pinellas and other counties.

 

 

DeSantis said the state also plans to partner with Florida International University and a third region, which is still up for grabs.

“You’re putting students in positions to get skills that are going to be immediately in demand,” he said.

 

 

Henry Mack, senior chancellor of the department of education, said the state’s commitment to workforce education continues. Applications for grants will be available at cyberflorida.org next week, he said

 

“You don’t have to go to university,” he said. “That is an excellent and awesome goal if you want it, but for students who need a certification or credential to get into the workforce to alleviate our risk and meet industry demand, we have those credentials now.”

Edited March 3, 2022 by CoffeeTiger

[I_M4_AU 8,057]

52 minutes ago, CoffeeTiger said:

Kudos to those kids for doing what they feel is best and not cowing to the immature demands of the Dictator of the "Free State" of Florida

This is an hilarious take, Coffee.  Those students have been kowtowing to the school system for 2 years now and that system tells them if you don’t do what we say you will be disciplined.  After all, there was a reason those particular students were chosen to stand behind DeSantis.  Kudos to the students that took the masks off as they are the one that can think for themselves and realize it has been theater.  The CDC is the director of the play and they are just actors. 

What science changed that led CDC to loosen the mask requirements in an orange area?

Good for Ron DeSantis.

[CoffeeTiger 5,228]

21 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

This is an hilarious take, Coffee.  Those students have been kowtowing to the school system for 2 years now and that system tells them if you don’t do what we say you will be disciplined.  After all, there was a reason those particular students were chosen to stand behind DeSantis.  Kudos to the students that took the masks off as they are the one that can think for themselves and realize it has been theater.  The CDC is the director of the play and they are just actors. 

What science changed that led CDC to loosen the mask requirements in an orange area?

Good for Ron DeSantis.

They were thinking for themselves, which is why they laughed and kept their masks on after the governor told them to take them off. 

 

Poor DeSantis... wants to be president, but can't even earn the respect of a group of high school kids. 

[I_M4_AU 8,057]

 

 

[CoffeeTiger 5,228]

 

 

[I_M4_AU 8,057]

 

 

Edited March 3, 2022 by I_M4_AU

[AUFightingSoldiers 685]

"We've got to stop with this Covid theatre. So if you want to wear it, fine, but this is ridiculous." 

If someone told them that they HAVE to wear masks then Desantis called it out for what it was. "If you want to wear it, fine..." doesn't seem like the language of a dictator 🤷‍♂️

[icanthearyou 4,464]

Who forced them to put the masks on?  I only see one person utilizing his power.

This is not COVID theater.  This is purely political theater.  If you can see reality.

Edited March 3, 2022 by icanthearyou

[CoffeeTiger 5,228]

2 hours ago, AUFightingSoldiers said:

"We've got to stop with this Covid theatre. So if you want to wear it, fine, but this is ridiculous." 

If someone told them that they HAVE to wear masks then Desantis called it out for what it was. "If you want to wear it, fine..." doesn't seem like the language of a dictator 🤷‍♂️

 

 

 

DeSantis is being a whiney bitch. Him saying "hey, you aren't required to wear masks if you don't want"  and then moving on like an adult would have bee perfectly fine. Telling them to take it off and then whining about them not being effective and it all being "covid theater" is, like ICHY says, political theater from DeSantis and reflects poorly on him.

 

 

Edited March 3, 2022 by CoffeeTiger

[WalkingCarpet 1,379]

This is the biggest non story since Trump got two scoops of ice cream. 

[homersapien 11,513]

"Covid theater"?

Oh the irony....... 

 

This country is ******.

Edited March 4, 2022 by homersapien

[SLAG-91 1,488]

Here's some mask theater for ya...

I guess you can only get Covid on Mondays and Wednesdays. 😐

[I_M4_AU 8,057]

From Tuesday’s SOTU speech as given by President Biden:

Let’s use this moment to reset. Let’s stop looking at COVID-19 as a partisan dividing line and see it for what it is: A God-awful disease.  

Let’s stop seeing each other as enemies, and start seeing each other for who we really are: Fellow Americans. 

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/03/01/remarks-of-president-joe-biden-state-of-the-union-address-as-delivered/

I guess our leader needs to step in here and tell the media what exactly he meant by *a reset*.  His advise hasn’t been followed.

[icanthearyou 4,464]

15 hours ago, WalkingCarpet said:

This is the biggest non story since Trump got two scoops of ice cream. 

Disagree.  It reveals this was never about "liberty", freedom.  It was always us versus them, pure political theater.

[WalkingCarpet 1,379]

35 minutes ago, icanthearyou said:

Disagree.  It reveals this was never about "liberty", freedom.  It was always us versus them, pure political theater.

"You don't have to wear that" is a political statement now? Do you hear yourself? Kids shouldn't be wearing masks in school ever. Nearly every single other country in the world got this memo except for the terminally online doomers who have done nothing but suck down fear porn for two years. Just stop already. 

[CoffeeTiger 5,228]

3 minutes ago, WalkingCarpet said:

"You don't have to wear that" is a political statement now? Do you hear yourself? Kids shouldn't be wearing masks in school ever. Nearly every single other country in the world got this memo except for the terminally online doomers who have done nothing but suck down fear porn for two years. Just stop already. 

 

 

[RunInRed 16,528]

Desantis is a clown.  Pretty common POV from those of us who live in South Florida.  As it relates to this, it's really not about the masks - it's about him, being well, an a**hole.

[icanthearyou 4,464]

58 minutes ago, WalkingCarpet said:

"You don't have to wear that" is a political statement now? Do you hear yourself? Kids shouldn't be wearing masks in school ever. Nearly every single other country in the world got this memo except for the terminally online doomers who have done nothing but suck down fear porn for two years. Just stop already. 

"Kids shouldn't be wearing masks in school ever."

Good job!!!  You made it crystal clear that you have no concern for humanity or real politics. 

Edited March 4, 2022 by icanthearyou

[icanthearyou 4,464]

1 minute ago, RunInRed said:

Desantis is a clown.  Pretty common POV from those of us who live in South Florida.  As it relates to this, it's really not about the masks - it's about him, being well, an a**hole.

Sadly, that is how you rally the base. 

[SLAG-91 1,488]

3 hours ago, icanthearyou said:

"Kids shouldn't be wearing masks in school ever."

Might have phrased it as "shouldn't be forced into" wearing, but the broad statement I agree with, for many reasons, one of which, ironically enough, is safety. Cameras catch a kid doing something they shouldn't be, but good luck recognizing them if said kid is wearing a mask.

Fortunately, some of my students are finally starting to ditch them. It's been odd to have to sort of relearn faces 3/4 of the way through the year when they go from "mask face" to "no-mask face," but it's nice to finally see entire faces.

Masks aren't even a topic of discussion, and haven't been from day one. They make their decision, I make mine (no mask, shocking, I know...), and we go about our business. As it should be.

[WalkingCarpet 1,379]

9 hours ago, icanthearyou said:

"Kids shouldn't be wearing masks in school ever."

Good job!!!  You made it crystal clear that you have no concern for humanity or real politics. 

"I have no argument so I'm going to be unbearably smug instead."

[WalkingCarpet 1,379]

9 hours ago, CoffeeTiger said:

 

 

You have the same chance of dying in a school shooting as you do of being struck and killed by lightning. Hit me with them thunderstruck memes. 

[CoffeeTiger 5,228]

12 hours ago, WalkingCarpet said:

You have the same chance of dying in a school shooting as you do of being struck and killed by lightning. Hit me with them thunderstruck memes. 

 

Yet in America you're chance of dying in a school shooting is many times higher than in any other modern nation on earth. 

 

Yet all you care about is crying about kids wearing facemasks...sad. 

[AUFAN78 3,943]

55 minutes ago, CoffeeTiger said:

 

Yet in America you're chance of dying in a school shooting is many times higher than in any other modern nation on earth. 

 

Yet all you care about is crying about kids wearing facemasks...sad. 

You started this thread whining and here you are still whining.  

[AUFAN78 3,943]

On 3/3/2022 at 12:20 PM, I_M4_AU said:

 

 

Perhaps a revisit is in order. Oh the hypocrisy.