10.9% of students out from COVID protocols
Murphy – After close to an hour of discussion, the Cherokee County Board of Education voted to maintain a mask-optional policy for the school system.
Vice chair Jeff Martin, a local doctor, was the lone board member to vote against remaining mask optional in the face of rising COVID-19 quarantines by both students and staff members. Cherokee County Schools’ quarantine numbers rose from 138 as of Jan. 10 to 326 just four days later on Thursday, hours before the school board meeting.
Those 326 students represent 10.9 percent of the county’s total enrollment, and numbers were expected to keep rising.
The board also listened to reports that the system has had recent difficulty maintaining enough cafeteria staff due to coronavirus cases and quarantines.
“What it comes down to, are we going to accept a 10 percent quarantine rate at this point?” Martin asked. “Is that too much? Because if you think that’s too much, then we should vote to put masks back on.”
Martin pointed out that Cherokee County student-athletes play schools from counties that have different masking policies, which can potentially put local players at higher risk of quarantine. He added that there is no evidence that wearing masks is detrimental, but there is evidence that losing in-school time due to quarantine does have negative effects on learning.
Board member James Ellis argued that many quarantines are likely stemming from students and staff being exposed outside of a school setting.
Board member Jeff Tatham said Martin raised a good question in asking what is someone’s threshold when it comes to the number of students quarantined. However, be believes there is another option available to parents to help avoid a quarantine scenario.
“If we make a mask mandate, for me that is forcing a decision on a parent, when parents already have an out for the exclusions, which is the vaccine,” Tatham said. “ ... It’s not my place to say whether you should get your kid vaccinated or not. My point is, it should be a parent’s decision whether to vaccinate their children or not, and I feel it’s also a parent’s decision whether to send their kid to school with a mask.”
Board attorney Dean Shatley clarified for the public that the term “quarantine” simply refers to students being ineligible to attend school for a period of time, per state rules, and is not any type of order from the school system requiring students to isolate at home.
“Only the local health director or his designees can issue a real quarantine order,” Shatley said. “We’re using ‘quarantine’ with a lower-case ‘q,’ not an upper-case ‘Q’.”