An unjust law is no law at all

During the Leon County School Board meeting on Aug. 24, there was a recurring theme that was stated over and over again by concerned parents and citizens of our community, about the obligation for the superintendent and the Leon County School Board to uphold the law. The law they were referring to is Governor Ron DeSantis’ executive order banning mandating masks in Florida’s public schools. The governor has consistently stated that he believes that it is a parent’s right to choose what is best for their child, and that school systems that mandate masks are violating the Parents Bill of Rights law.

I absolutely believe that parents should be front and center concerning the education, health, safety, and overall psychosocial well-being of their children. I also believe that parents and children should be able to exercise the freedoms that are privileged to us as American citizens. Everyone should have the right to exercise the four essential human freedoms that were eloquently stated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. 

But where does that freedom end? 

When exercising my freedom, do I only think about how it affects me, or do I consider how what I choose to do affect others?

In the School Board Meeting, many talked about the necessity to follow the Constitution. In the United States Constitution, the Preamble reads, “We the people of the United States, in order to from a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare…” To promote the general welfare is the concern of the government for the health, peace, morality and safety of its citizens. The government of the people, by the people and for the people must promote the general welfare of all citizens. 

The Superintendent and the School Board, who after undeniably witnessing the steady uptick of COVID cases in schools and knowing the risks involved with the children in our schools who currently cannot receive the vaccine, are in my humble opinion upholding the law.

The Center for Disease Control, contrary to some interpretations of its guidance, recommends universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status. When you wear a mask you protect yourself as well as others. The CDC emphasizes that masks work best when everyone wears one. The CDC is regarded as the gold standard for science and research of COVID-19 and it is an act of responsibility for everyone to follow the guidance. We must be the example and teach our children to not only look out for themselves, but to be concerned about the general welfare of all.   

Are the superintendent and Leon County School Board breaking the law? If so they are certainly in good company.  Martin Luther King, Jr., the face for Civil Rights Movement during the 1950’s and 1960’s was arrested five times in his life for protesting against laws that were oppressive and discriminatory against the Black community. 

Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson, civil rights activists who initiated the Tallahassee Bus Boycott of 1956, were arrested when they both refused to move to the back of a crowded city bus. 

Susan B. Anthony was arrested in 1872 for voting in her hometown of Rochester, New York, fighting for the right of women to vote. 

The civil rights icon and former Congressman John Lewis was arrested forty times during the civil rights movement protesting racist laws and practices in the Jim Crow South.

As a Christian and minister of the Gospel, I can certainly appreciate the superintendent and Board members who were willing, as school board member Darryl Jones eloquently described,  “to love and then to lead.” 

I applaud Superintendent Rocky Hanna and board members, Joy Bowen, Jones, and Roseanne Wood for having the moral fiber and courage to take a stand, recognizing that the governor of Florida’s banning of mandating masks in school systems across this state is an unjust law. As the great philosopher and theologian, St. Augustine said, “An unjust law is no law at all.”

 Tommy Daymond Jr. is an associate minister at Bethel Missionary Baptist Church