“We all want it to be normal. We all want our regular lives back and I have nothing but sympathy and empathy for people who do that, but we do not live in normal times,” he told CNN. “And that’s the thing, people just choose to live as it is, until it’s impossible to ignore.”
Chambers that are afraid of the coronavirus will spread across the area, which is about 30 minutes north of Atlanta, says he saw this. He, along with other ward parents, received a letter in mid-July from Superintendent Brian Hightower of Cherokee County School announcing a 77-page rescheduling plan.
“One day later, it was voted on, with limited opportunity for the public to participate,” Chambers said of the vote, which was limited to those who could finally stand up. “When the committee that created the reopening plan was created, there were no teachers on it and teachers were not given a chance to review it before it was published to the public.”
Chambers became a well-known local activist after writing an open letter to the superintendent who posted the reshuffle.
“I do not see much evidence that guidelines from (the US Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Health) were a leading factor in making this policy. Indeed, your plan seems to completely soften or ignore their recommendations while you seem an ‘imaginable best case scenario’ when it comes to young people following these changing rules and the ability of teachers to control and enforce them, ‘wrote Chambers, a game designer.
The plan now in place at schools means students have no social distance and adults do not wear face masks. Rooms believes that students who go in person are at risk and keep their 10-year-old and 4-year-old at home.
High school closed
CNN reached out to Superintendent Hightower, who declined an interview. The school district’s chief communications officer, Barbara P. Jacoby, said: “(O) your communication tensions are focused on direct communication with parents.”
On Tuesday, Hightower told parents Etowah High School in Woodstock would have near-personal learning from the end of the day until at least August 31st. There have been 14 positive coronavirus cases at the school, he said, with tests pending another 15 students. Some 294 students and staff have been asked to quarantine.
Hightower asked people to wear social distance and wear masks. “As your Superintendent, I wear a mask when I can not social distance. We know that all parents do not believe that the scientific research that indicates that masks are beneficial, but I believe it and see masks as an important measure to help us to keep schools open, “he wrote to parents.
Requiring masks is a decision that is left to individual schools in Cherokee County. Across Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp has encouraged wearing the mask, but excludes all mandates and says he supports local decision-making.
A little north of Woodstock, Brandy Heath thought sending her fourth and sixth graders back to classes at Freedom Middle and Liberty Elementary in Canton was certainly the better option for her learning.
“I sent my son to face-to-face learning because, as every parent knows, school is the best place for our children. Their teachers are educated, and they can teach things to our children that we cannot,” “she told CNN.
“The second day of school, however, my son said to me, ‘Mom, I do not feel safe. We are not a social distance, there are no precautions taken to keep us safe,'” Heath told CNN of her fourth classifier.
Once she heard that, Heath, who says she was immuno-compromised, dragged her children back home for distance learning.
“We expect the Cherokee County School District to keep our children safe. To take precautionary measures that ensure their safety. And it is not being done,” she said.
Back at the playground in Woodstock, Jamie Chambers said he sometimes feels like he’s fighting a losing battle. In this deeply conservative part of Georgia, he says politics remains set for science, with even some school officials telling staff they believe the coronavirus is a hoax, he said.
Some of the parents at the park appeared less worried about the virus.
“I’m not sorry I sent my kids to school,” the mother of a fourth and fifth grader, who declined to give her name, told CNN. “They’ll get the virus at school or out of school. They can send them back just as well.”
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