More than 2,000 students, faculty and staff members in five states are in quarantine after at least 230 positive coronavirus cases were reported.
The dilemma has forced school districts to navigate or reopen, and what to do when learning in person proves personally dangerous.
In the Cherokee County School District of Georgia, more than 1,100 students, teachers and staff members are under quarantine after Covid-19 reports were reported. The ward began learning personally on August 3, and as of Tuesday, 59 positive cases were reported. The quarantine period of two weeks has affected more than a dozen schools.
“It does not sound like this was a successful resume,” former Georgia teacher Miranda Wicker told CNN’s Don Lemon on Wednesday night. Wicker has spoken with teachers in the neighborhood who say they have asked for precautionary measures such as masking requirements, but the neighborhood still needs to maintain a mandate. It is up to individual schools to do this.
And in nearby Gwinnett County, the state’s largest school district had to quarantine staff before its doors even opened. At least 263 workers are quarantined after 28 confirmed cases with effect from 5 August. School began on Wednesday virtually in Gwinnett County.
It is a scene that has been played in Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Indiana, with school districts also maintaining quarantines. And it made many teachers reluctant to go back to class.
‘I compromise my family’
For Marie Tichenor, following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention meant that seeing her students personally would be risky for her family.
Her husband has an autoimmune disease, she said, which puts one at higher risk of serious Covid-19 disease.
“I know as an educator of young children, it will be very difficult at a social distance,” Tichenor told Lemon.
“Even if the kids kept their mask on and did not touch each other and they stayed seven feet apart … it’s little things like on the first day of school, screaming kids. A kid will ask me to tie his or her shoes. My gut reaction will go close to that child, to comfort that child, to help that child. “
Tichenor said she received a medical exemption to work remotely because a return to personal learning meant “I have compromised my family.” She was one of more than 400 teachers in Elizabeth, New Jersey, who asked their district to move to virtual learning this fall.
Cases increase in children
Dr. Sean O’Leary, vice chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases, told CNerson Anderson Cooper on Monday that cases of coronavirus in children should be taken seriously.
“It’s not fair to say that this virus is completely benign in children,” O’Leary said. “We’ve had 90 deaths in children in the U.S. in just a few months. Every year we raise concerns about influenza in children, and there are about 100 deaths in children from influenza each year.”
Leary said several factors have led to a recent increase in the number of coronavirus infections in children in the past few weeks, including increased testing, increased movement among children and an increase in infection among the general population.
“If you see a lot more infections in the general population, you’ll see a lot more infections in children,” O’Leary said.
“We all need to take this virus seriously, including caring for our children,” O’Leary said.
CNN’s Annie Grayer, Elizabeth Stuart, Jen Christensen, Lauren Mascarenhas, Christina Maxouris and Sandee LaMotte contributed to this report.
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