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Parents outside Lee County react to school district's COVID guidelines

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Posted at 8:55 PM, Aug 25, 2021
and last updated 2021-08-25 20:55:55-04

FORT MYERS, Fla. — On Wednesday, the School District of Lee County gave an online presentation of their COVID guidelines on Facebook.

One of the major questions for the district was the status of masks in their schools.

The district said parents will continue to have the opportunity to choose whether or not their children will wear masks.

The news drew a lot of attention around SWFL including parents in Sarasota County who belong to the Families 4 Freedom Facebook group.

Chad Dion and Ashton Boyer, both parents with children in the Sarasota school district spoke with Fox 4, saying their district is requiring all students and staff to wear masks in school.

"I think that Lee County seems to be going towards what the parents want. Giving parental choice which is very, very important. I would like to see that in Sarasota County I don't think it's right that Sarasota County is taking that choice away from the parents and giving it to three school board members," said Dion.

Dion says frustrations for Sarasota families come from the fact that last year, their school had mask exemptions.

Boyer echos a similar message saying many parents felt that the same rule would be in place for the 2021-22 school year.

"We had mask exemptions for last year and we were told by Shirley Brown the chair for Sarasota county school board via email that would be allowed..we would be able to use last year's exemptions and that's not the case as of yesterday. They took that away from us and they are going to enforce this on Monday, coming up," said Boyer.