The Seminole County School Board scrapped a plan Tuesday to put stickers over yearbook photos of students protesting against Florida’s so-called “don’t say gay” bill, responding to a public backlash against the move.

The school board voted 5-0 not to obscure the photos and captions of a walkout protest featured in Lyman High School’s yearbook.

Instead, a sticker will be placed on the page that explains the protest was student led and not sponsored by the school.

An appeals court on Tuesday upheld a court order allowing schools to institute mask mandates, another loss for the state in the ongoing case against a new COVID-19 law.

A federal district court previously blocked the state from enforcing a portion of state law that would limit individual districts' ability to require masking unless the governor issued a state of emergency and case counts reached a high threshold.

U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw also previously denied the state's request for him to set aside his own December order on the matter. Crenshaw temporarily blocked the new law.

Sixth Circuit Court Senior Judge David W. McKeague, Judge Helene N. White concurred on the decision to deny the state's request for a stay. Judge Chad A. Readler dissented.

Crenshaw found the law likely violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, blocking students from receiving an accommodation of universal masking in K–12 schools.

What do Cuba and Florida have in common?

Book-banning, censorship — and, added into the mix this week, state-mandated school indoctrination for political purposes.

They’re hallmark practices of the Communist Party-led regime in Cuba, tools used for six decades to keep Cubans isolated and in the dark about information that falls outside of what the ruling party’s ideology commands people to believe.

Ironically, after this year’s GOP-dominated legislative session, the same manipulative tactics are now pillars of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ public education system.

Math textbooks and literary books are being banned because some comité a la Cuba — aka “Moms for Liberty,” made up of citizens jazzed and empowered by Republicans into a state of hysteria — deemed them inappropriate and sounded the alarm.

Educators are being censored and handed guidelines, embedded into law, about what they’re allowed to say and not say to students on race or gender identity. Nothing that makes whites uncomfortable. Nothing about being gay or trans in kindergarten to third grade when kids are full of questions about fellow classmates or themselves.

It all reminds me of the atmosphere of repression during my elementary school education in Cuba.

But self-awareness isn’t a Florida Republican attribute.