ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla — A St. Johns County mother is taking her concerns straight to the federal government.
Angelique Kelley filed a civil rights complaint against the school district for not implementing a mask mandate for both its staff and students. Last week, First Coast News spoke to Kelley who believes it’s a form of discrimination against her son who has a learning disability.
With two students in his class testing positive for COVID-19, Kelley’s 10-year-old son is stuck at home.
“My child received special services at school. And unfortunately, at this time, he's home, he's unable to go to school," she explained.
Due to his learning disability, Kelley says, her son requires in-person instruction at St. John County's Hartley Elementary School.
“We're doing the best that we can until he can go back in person," Kelley said.
The department’s Office of Civil Rights is directly looking into the bans in five states: Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah.
“The Department has heard from parents from across the country — particularly parents of students with disabilities and with underlying medical conditions — about how state bans on universal indoor masking are putting their children at risk and preventing them from accessing in-person learning equally,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement. “It’s simply unacceptable that state leaders are putting politics over the health and education of the students they took an oath to serve."
“I also asked the United States government to open an investigation here in St. Johns County and throughout the State of Florida, because of the serious governmental overreach," Kelley said.
Kelley told First Coast News she filed her own federal civil rights complaint – alleging that her child with a learning disability has been discriminated against by the State of Florida and the St. Johns County School District.
She says there are more children in the state and district like her son – who are unable to receive the school services they need.
“Throughout our community, I've received support from doctors, other parents, parents of children that have special needs, parents with children with disabilities, medically fragile children," Kelley explained. "I've received letters, which I've included on behalf of these parents with my complaint. So, the Federal Department of Education can see exactly what's going on here."
According to the school district's daily COVID-19 update Wednesday, 723 students are currently positive with COVID-19, 2,384 are in quarantine, which combined is almost 7% of all students in the district.