Judge ends $100m suit over Brevard mask

Jan 01, 2024

A federal judge ruled in favor of the Brevard County School Board and two school employees in a $100 million lawsuit filed by the family of a student with Down syndrome whose teachers tied a mask to her face during a school mask mandate in 2021.

However, the ruling, which came Friday, leaves open the door for new legal action, which the family has hinted it would pursue.

The October 2021 incident captured national headlines after then 7-year-old Sophia Bezerra, a special needs student at Ocean Breeze Elementary in Indian Harbour Beach, came home from school with a mask tied around her head with a shoestring-like cord.

Previous:Family of 'Sofia' files $100m federal lawsuit against teachers, Brevard School Board

Her teachers later told investigators they had been using the cord, threaded through the mask's ear loops and tied in a bow behind the girl's head, because the mask would continually slip off her ears in class.

A police investigation found no evidence she was ever restrained or in distress and that the method used to secure the mask was recommended by a Down syndrome advocacy group.

Attorneys for the family filed the federal suit in December 2021, accusing her teachers of child abuse and the School Board of negligence and violating her civil rights. Former Superintendent Mark Mullins and the three Board members who voted for the mask mandate — Jennifer Jenkins and former board members Misty Belford and Cheryl McDougall — also were named.

The suit came after separate investigations by Brevard Public Schools and the Indian Harbour Beach police, along with a review by the Office of State Attorney Phil Archer, all found the allegations of abuse were unfounded.

U.S. District Judge Carlos Mendoza on Friday canceled a trial scheduled in the case and awarded 12 of 15 counts to the defendants; the remaining three counts were dismissed "without prejudice" — legal speak meaning they can be refiled at a later time.

Doubt:Expert opinion raises doubt on key aspect of student mask-tying controversy

His reasoning was unclear Tuesday, as the order containing the judgements remained under seal. Several motions throughout the case were sealed by the court because they contained confidential medical information.

A docket summary of the order noted the court found the girl's teachers "did not have a deliberate intent" to cause harm.

But while the federal case has been closed, the ruling means some parts of the case could be tried again, possibly in a different court.

Attorneys for the family did not respond to messages, but there are signs they aren't ready to drop the case.

Sofia's stepfather wrote in a May 15 blog post that several complaints had been "wrongly dismissed." He made an apparent reference to the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, Perez v. Sturgis Public Schools, in which a Michigan student with disabilities ultimately triumphed despite losses in lower courts.

"We pray that several complaints that we feel were wrongly dismissed due to an administrative concern will be returned to us, much like the Perez family found an unlikely savior in the US Supreme Court (a 9-0 ruling)," Jeffrey Steel wrote on the crowdfunding site GiveSendGo, which the family used to fund the court case.

Exposed:Parents of girl with Down Syndrome in mask-tying case made false statements, staged photos, police say

Jenkins, who also faced a defamation complaint in the suit after criticizing Steel's account of the incident on Facebook, said there were "no winners" in the case.

"An innocent child was thrusted into political warfare at their expense," Jenkins wrote in a statement to FLORIDA TODAY. "I am thankful for the court's thorough and comprehensive review of the merits of this case."

Belford declined to comment for this story, citing the possibility of further litigation. McDougall and a spokesman for Brevard Public Schools did not immediately return requests for comment, and Mullins could not be reached before the publication of this story.

The case became political fodder during statewide debates over school mask mandates and was referenced at one point by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The Brevard School Board was one of 12 school districts that defied DeSantis' executive ban on mask mandates during the 2021-22 school year.

'Disturbing':State Attorney backs police in 'Sofia' case, calls social media attacks 'disturbing'

It also received special attention from State Rep. Randy Fine, who used the incident to hammer the School Board on the House floor, and Jenkins in particular, with whom Fine has had a longstanding feud. Fine declined to comment for this story.

Steel, who parlayed national news network appearances into over $100,000 in donations to fund the family's legal fight, drew controversy when aspects of his story were contradicted by details revealed in the police investigation.

Widely circulated photographs of the tied mask were found to have been staged by Steel and his wife days after the fact, and it was learned the family had never requested a medical mask exemption for Sofia, which the school's mandate allowed.

Steel, who according to police reports referred to masks as "Chinese passports," said he didn't know the school was masking Sofia. Her teachers told police they had sent home notes with each student informing parents their children would be wearing masks in accordance with the mandate, according to the police report.

Eric Rogers is a watchdog reporter for FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Rogers at 321-242-3717 or [email protected].