4 days after schools reopened, Miami student tests positive

MIAMI (AP) — Four days after sending the first wave of students back to brick-and-mortar classrooms in a staggered reopening, the Miami-Dade County school district announced its first case of a student testing positive for COVID-19.

The district said in a news release sent Thursday morning that a student at William H. Lehman Elementary in Kendall will remain at home until the county’s health department provides clearance for a return to school.

Everyone identified as having come into close contact with the student has been notified and will also remain at home until cleared by health officials, the release said.

School officials said the student’s movements were limited, but the entire school was thoroughly sanitized early Thursday, according to district protocols.

“The school community has been sent a notification about the case,” the release said.

Officials did not disclose the student’s age, how long the student had been in school or how many people were asked to quarantine.

Miami-Dade County has the nation’s fourth largest school district, with 345,000 students and more than 40,000 employees. The district opened schools Monday in a phased reopening that continues through Friday. Neighboring Broward County will begin a similar staggered reopening of schools Friday.

South Florida was the state’s hardest hit region during the pandemic and is the last in the state to return to brick-and-mortar schools. Parents who chose to continue with remote learning for their children have been allowed to do so.

Also Thursday, Florida recorded about 3,300 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, the highest addition in nearly three weeks, along with a slight uptick in the number of people being treated in hospitals for the illness.

Metrics in Florida’s outbreak have generally trended downward since peaks in new cases and hospitalizations in July and in peaks of daily reported deaths at the beginning of August. But in the past couple of weeks, as the state has further reopened restaurants and other businesses and schools have restarted brick-and-mortar classes, some of those trends have leveled without further decline.

Hospitalizations, for example, peaked above 9,500 on July 22 and declined steadily through August and most of September. But over the past two weeks they have remained between 2,000 and 2,200 statewide — with 2,148 patients in the late morning Thursday, up 20 from the previous day, according to a state online hospital bed census.

So far, 15,254 people have died of the disease in Florida — with an average of 91 new deaths reported daily over the past week. Florida ranks fifth among the states in deaths and 12th in per capita deaths.

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Follow AP coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.

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Teen arrested at Florida school after refusing to wear mask

WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) — The lawyer for the family of a 16-year-old boy who was arrested last month after refusing to wear a mask at a central Florida high school called the incident “government abuse” of a teen suffering from panic attacks.

The Winter Springs High School sophomore, whose name was redacted on the Sept. 17 report, was arrested after refusing to wear a mask and abide by other school rules, which violated a probation order that required him to maintain good behavior in school, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

Jose Rivas, the family’s attorney, said the teenager’s prior record didn’t justify what he viewed as an uncalled-for action.

“Should they be arresting a 16-year-old child knowing he already has a medical condition?” he said.

In a statement, Rivas’ law firm called the arrest “government abuse” and added, “We will be seeking just and fair compensation for the illegal arrest … and the harm that this action caused him.”

The boy’s mother told the newspaper her son has an anxiety disorder. She said he was arrested after going to the school office to ask for water because he was feeling panicky and was having trouble breathing in the mask.

“I couldn’t grasp it at first. Because of a mask?” the newspaper quoted the mother as saying. “I was just in a disbelief.” The Associated Press isn’t identifying the mother to protect the student’s identity.

A report from the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office states that the boy had been instructed to obey school rules as a condition of his probation. It did not say what he was on probation for. The report said that starting on Sept. 1 he refused to obey rules, including wearing a mask and social distancing, and that he received a warning. The report said he also was caught vaping in the cafeteria.

On Sept. 17, he was seen again not wearing a mask and refused to put one on. A deputy then arrested him and brought him to a juvenile detention center. The sheriff’s office told the newspaper the arrest was for probation violations, not violations of the school district’s mask rules.

By not wearing a mask, however, he was in violation of school rules. Masks are a requirement for students and staff on all Seminole County public school campuses during the coronavirus pandemic.

School Resource Deputy Adrian Richardson warned the teen that getting in trouble at school was a violation of his probation, the report said.

The student has not returned to the school. His mother said the family is moving and that he will complete an online education program.

“He just feels like they will target him again,” she said. “It’s really taken a toll on him.”

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As 1st wave of Miami pupils return, some worry about safety

MIAMI (AP) — As Florida’s largest school district prepares for a first wave of students to return to physical classrooms on Monday, several teachers and parents say schools are struggling to be ready.

Parents and teachers told the Miami Herald that the ventilation and air quality at some schools are concerning because of the way the schools are designed. A teacher told the newspaper that staff hadn’t received face masks, wipes or hand sanitizer at one school in order to protect against the new coronavirus.

Teachers were spacing out desks without a measuring stick, according to that teacher.

A district spokeswoman said the school had given out cloth masks and the teacher was asking for a different type of mask.

Superintendent Alberto Carvalho on Saturday posted photos on social media showing schools with signage promoting social distancing and hygiene, air filters, socially distant desks and buses with hand sanitizer.

“Spent the day conducting school visits and touring one of our bus facilities,” Carvalho wrote. “Air filters have been replaced, front offices are properly equipped, our buses have hand sanitizer and appropriate signage, and our empty classrooms are ready to welcome students back.”

Around 22,000 students in pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, first grade and students with disabilities who follow a modified schedule are returning Monday as part of the first wave of pupils coming back to in-person classes in Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the nation’s fourth largest district.

Meanwhile, Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber asked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to rethink his refusal to mandate masks statewide in light of President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump contracting the virus. Gelber also told the governor in a letter that local governments should be able to enforce mask requirements.

“The notion that we are still debating this seems incomprehensible given the recent infections of the First Family, and the horrific impact the virus has had on our own residents,” Gelber wrote.

Florida on Sunday had more than 1,800 new reported coronavirus cases and more than 40 new related deaths. Florida now has had 716,459 total cases of the virus, and 14,845 related deaths.

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Parkland parents create AI video of slain son to spur voters

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Wearing his signature hoodie and beanie, an earbud casually hanging from one ear, passionate Parkland teen Joaquin Oliver urges his peers to vote for lawmakers who will end gun violence in a new video released Friday. Next month’s election would have been his first chance to vote.

The 17-year-old’s mannerisms and vernacular “yo, it’s me” are shockingly life like, but it is just a mirage — a realistic, almost eerie artificial intelligence re-creation of the teen who was among the 17 killed in the 2018 Valentine’s Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, the worst school shooting in history.

From the grave, the teen is now begging his peers to cast the vote that he will never cast.

“I’ve been gone for two years and nothing’s changed, bro. People are still getting killed by guns,” he implores in the video created by his parents’ charity to end gun violence. “You’ve got to replace my vote.”

After their son’s death, Manuel and Patricia Oliver founded the organization Change The Ref to empower young people to make changes through education and activism on a variety of issues, most notably gun violence.

They helped craft every detail of the video, from their son’s wardrobe to his mannerisms and what he would say, relying on his Twitter account and other musings to help guide them.

“It’s something where you just put the dots together if you see his posts, the way he thinks, he was still thinking, the way he was expressing his frustration about situations,” his mom said in a phone interview Friday.

The teen, affectionately known as Guac, was affected by racism at a young age and protective of his Hispanic immigrant parents. When he was 12-years-old he wrote a letter to gunmakers asking why they didn’t support universal background checks.

“We are letting Joaquin grow into his ideas … and how he will be reacting to things that are happening today,” his father said. “We know our son so well and we knew exactly what he wanted from life.”

The lifelike image is also painful to watch for the grieving parents.

“I couldn’t even breathe well,” his mother said of the first time she saw the video. “Of course we know that is not Joaquin, but they did such an amazing job with the technology that you can’t say, ‘Oh my God, how I wish that could be the real Joaquin there talking to everybody.’”

For Manuel Oliver, he’s harnessed that pain to create change. The artist has traveled the country on Joaquin’s behalf, painting a mural on his son’s birthday outside the National Rifle Association’s headquarters and leading a rally at the headquarters of Smith & Wesson.

“I wouldn’t describe this as painful but as powerful.”

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Miami-Dade students return to class for 1st time since March

MIAMI (AP) — More than 22,000 students are returning to classrooms in Miami-Dade County on Monday for the first time since schools shut down in March because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Pre-K, kindergarten and first grade students are the first to return to the Miami-Dade Public School district under a staggered reopening plan. Another 40,000 students are expected to return to classrooms on Wednesday, with yet another group starting on Friday. Another group of students will continue distance learning from their homes. Miami-Dade is the nation’s fourth largest district, with 345,000 students.

The school board originally wanted to push the reopening back to mid-October but settled on Monday’s start date after Florida’s education secretary threatened to withhold state funding. Miami-Dade County’s daily positive test result rate on Sunday was over 5% during four of the previous seven days.

School officials prepared campuses for social distancing, installed air filters and arranged for school nurses and “medically trained staff” to be present at each school. Each student is expected to receive a thermometer when returning to school.

Many teachers and parents have expressed concern over the system’s readiness to return to brick-and-mortar schools, including student-teacher ratios, sanitation supplies and masks. District officials say they are well prepared for students to return.

In neighboring Broward County, which boasts the country’s sixth largest district, school officials are preparing for a staggered reopening beginning on Friday.

South Florida has been particularly hard-hit by the coronavirus, but is complying with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ order to put the entire state into Phase 3 of his coronavirus recovery plan, with only case-by-case exceptions to his call for all businesses and restaurants to reopen.

Florida on Monday had more than 1,415 new reported coronavirus cases and 41 new related deaths. Florida now has had 717,874 total cases of the virus, and 14,886 related deaths.

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Audit finds flaws with Florida’s safe schools office

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s Office of Safe Schools, which was created after a mass shooting at a Parkland high school, hasn’t been carrying out all of its statutory responsibilities, according to a report by the state’s auditor general.

The report examined the office’s operations during 2019 and determined it was understaffed and not fully carrying out responsibilities lawmakers assigned it when they passed a bill to address school safety after 17 people were fatally shot at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February 2018. The office is part of the Department of Education.

“Due to limited Office staff resources, some statutory duties assigned to the Office were either not performed or were administered in whole or in part by other Department organizational units and vendors,” the report said.

In its reply to the audit’s findings, the Department of Education said it took an “all hands on” deck approach to meeting statutory responsibilities.

“It would be an excessively naive thought to separate the responsibilities of (the Office of Safe Schools) from (the Florida Department of Education) in this analysis, because they are inherently one in the same,” the department said.

The audit report stood by its finding, saying it recognized the department-wide effort to implement the school safety law, but said the law requires the office itself handle the responsibilities.

The bill lawmakers passed and then-Gov. Rick Scott signed assigned the office to oversee best practices, training standards and ensure compliance in school safety requirements, including prevention efforts, intervention efforts and emergency planning.

The audit also said the Office of Safe Schools didn’t meet other statutory requirements, like establishing a formula for distributing state money to train school employees to carry guns in schools. It also noted a shortcoming on a school safety portal that’s supposed to allow schools and law enforcement to share information about potential threats.

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Facing state pressure, Miami schools OK reopening next week

MIAMI (AP) — Faced with a state ultimatum, the Miami-Dade school board agreed unanimously to reopen schools for classroom instruction next week despite looming fears that they’re unprepared to prevent another spike in coronavirus infections.

It was either share classroom air again or lose millions in state funding by scratching a reopening plan approved by Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran. He ordered the board in a letter last week to follow through on Monday, and said the state would allow only case-by-case exceptions for certain schools.

Corcoran’s letter objected to a previous board decision to postpone classroom instruction, perhaps until late October, so that more safety measures could be implemented and personal protective equipment obtained for teachers and staff.

Miami-Dade has both the largest school district in Florida, and the state’s worst coronavirus caseload.

Both President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis have pushed for classroom instruction to begin again. State officials granted flexibility to South Florida districts to continue with online learning because of their high virus caseloads.

Florida’s health department has since begun releasing statistics on coronavirus cases “associated with” individual schools. The vast majority showed total caseloads in the single digits.

Two high schools in the Florida Panhandle where some parents have complained about repeated quarantines of students who sat next to asymptomatic infected classmates had the highest number of confirmed cases, at 31 and 22. In Miami-Dade, where schools have struggled to successfully implement remote instruction this school year, no school has more than four infections, the numbers show.

Still, the teacher’s union condemned the board’s decision to restart physical classes next Monday, saying it was done “too quickly and without preparation.”

“The pressure from President Trump and Governor DeSantis proved to be far greater a force on our school board than our pleas for public health and safety,” said United Teachers of Dade President Karla Hernandez-Mats in a statement. “When it came to our teachers, children and families in Miami-Dade, our board succumbed to the pressures.”

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Florida Supreme Court: $300K Total Liability Cap for School Shooting Victims

Crosses and flowers hang on a fence outside of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, near Parkland, Fla., in this file photo.

Crosses and flowers hang on a fence outside of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, near Parkland, Fla., in this file photo.
—Brynn Anderson/AP

Tallahassee, Fla.

The Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a school district can’t be forced to pay more than $300,000 total to the victims or their families in the Parkland high school massacre that left 17 people dead and another 17 wounded

Justices unanimously sided with Broward County Public Schools, agreeing that the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was a single incident. The victims and their families had argued that each pull of the trigger was a separate occurrence for which the school district should be held liable.

After a trial judge agreed with the Broward County School Board, an appeals court asked the Supreme Court to answer the question of whether each victim represents a separate occurrence.

State law caps government agencies’ liability in civil lawsuits at $200,000 per individual and $300,000 per incident. Any jury award above that amount has to be approved by the Legislature and governor. Without that, each victim or family in the Parkland shooting would receive an average of less than $9,000.

Nikolas Cruz is awaiting trial on first-degree murder charges for the shooting and faces a possible death sentence.

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School district scrambles to find substitute teachers

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A Florida school district is scrambling to find substitute teachers after a large number of full-time teachers chose to stay home as students returned to brick and mortar classes for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began.

The Palm Beach County school district said 944 teachers did not show for work on Monday when students who chose the in-school option returned to classrooms. The number was slightly lower — nearly 894 teachers, or roughly 1 of every 13 — on Tuesday, the Palm Beach Post reported.

Officials said 387 substitute teachers were called in to assist on Tuesday across the district, which consist of 180 campuses. Some 58,000 students were in classrooms on Tuesday, officials said.

“Over the last two days we have averaged around 42% substitute fill rate, which is below our average,” Gonzalo La Cava, the district’s human resources director, told the newspaper.

Many principals asked teachers to supervise two classes at one time, or sent other employees to monitor classrooms where the teacher did not show up, the newspaper reported.

In other cases, students were sent to overflow rooms until their next class begins.

“My son’s Spanish teacher quit over the weekend,” Nicole Britton, mother of a Park Vista High School student, told the newspaper. “He had to go to an ‘overflow room’ on Monday and basically had study hall for almost two hours.”

There is not an easy fix for district officials. The concerns causing teachers to stay home is also making some substitute teachers uneasy about accepting assignments.

“You can’t find them,” said Stacy Tepper, a veteran math teacher at L.C. Swain Middle School. “We have like 14 or 15 people out on virtual (assignments), and there’s no subs.”

Officials expect some teachers to return to classrooms as they burn through sick days and vacation time. Others are waiting to see if they receive remote-work accommodations. So far, 64 teachers have resigned, 82 have taken leaves of absence and 278 with health complications have been granted remote-work assignments, the district said.

Tuesday’s enrollment rose by about 2,000 over Monday’s first day of in-person classes, officials said. .

Palm Beach County is the nation’s 10th largest school system with 197,000 students and 12,900 teachers.

School districts in neighboring Broward and Miami-Dade counties have not yet returned to classrooms. On Tuesday, Miami-Dade’s school board approved a plan for willing students to return to schools by Oct. 7. Broward County officials pushed back a return to the classroom until mid-October.

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Vote expected on staggered reopening of Miami-Dade schools

MIAMI (AP) — Florida’s largest school district is proposing to have all willing students back in classrooms by Oct. 7, but a final vote was delayed by more than 18 hours of public comment.

The Miami-Dade County School District proposed to have a staggered reopening of school buildings following the coronavirus pandemic. The board on Monday asked questions of district staff and discussed policies before playing the voicemails, which are required to be heard before holding a vote. A vote is expected around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.

The 762 public comments were playing overnight, possibly to no board member listening, the Miami Herald reported. The school board said it does not need a quorum during public comment.

Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said students in pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and first grade, and students with special needs would return to the classroom on Wednesday, Sept. 30.

On Oct. 5, the remaining elementary school students and students in sixth, ninth and 10th grades will return to classes. By Oct. 7, all students who have opted for in-person learning would be back in classrooms.

Carvalho has said 51% of families wish to send their children back for in-person learning, the newspaper reported. Miami-Dade County Public Schools is the fourth largest school district in the United States, comprised of 392 schools, 345,000 students and over 40,000 employees.

Many of the first 100 comments came from district educators and were largely against reopening schools.

School in Palm Beach County opened Monday, with about two-thirds of students and 1 in 12 teachers staying home. In neighboring Broward County, School Superintendent Robert Runcie planned to announce on Tuesday his plan to reopen schools for in-person learning on Oct. 5.

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