More than 8,000 students have opted out of wearing masks within Duval County Public Schools within the second week of school — a small number representing only about 6.5 percent of the 125,000 students on campus. But teachers say the numbers are disproportionately dispersed classroom-to-classroom.
In teacher Andrew Mathis' Oceanway Elementary classes, he says about eight of his 47 students — 16 percent — have opted-out of wearing masks.
"Our elementary children aren't vaccinated and now some are also without masks," Mathis told The Times-Union. "I know the district wanted to make masks a mandate. Last year I found it easy to enforce. It wasn't a problem to say, 'Put your mask on.' Everyone was doing the same thing."
Read the rest of this story from WJCT News partner The Florida Times-Union