A longtime professor at an institute in Georgia died over the weekend after losing a battle against COVID-19, weeks after the district superintendent refused to issue a mask warrant and instead said the teachers could wear jeans for a month.
Bulloch County Coroner Jake Futch confirmed at local outlets that Penny Gary, 58, a teacher at Statesboro High School, died from COVID-19 complications at East Regional Medical Center. Georgia. It’s unclear if Gary had been vaccinated or taught in person since the school year began earlier this month, but Bulloch County schools operate largely in person.
“It’s a great loss for this community because not only did he care about our students, but also the teachers, he had a lot of compassion for everyone,” William Hill, a former student who graduated last year at WJCL, told the school. interview. “She would just make sure she was on the right track, to prepare for life after high school. Get ready for your career and all. The alumni and students that are there today, we’ll find her at “There will be a big gap in the Statesboro High School community.”
His death comes after teachers and many parents had asked administrators to require masks for all students, teachers and visitors to the school, regardless of vaccination status, which the CDC recommended in June as important step to ensure the safe reopening of schools. (Although vaccines have been seen as a key step in the fight against COVID, they are not yet approved for children under 12.)
Breathing the CDC’s recommendation last month, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp tried to prevent cities and counties from issuing their own mask rules, even suing Atlanta for trying to block its mask mandate. Finally, Kemp said cities and counties could demand facial coverage if infections reached a certain level.
In an Aug. 2 order, Georgia Department of Public Health commissioner Kathleen Toomey encouraged schools to follow CDC masking guidelines, but said they could “choose to meet the various requirements of quarantine developed by the local school district to facilitate face-to-face learning. ”
Within days of reopening, four public school districts in Georgia were forced to temporarily stop face-to-face learning due to the high COVID-19 case count and the thousands of students in their forties.
Bulloch County, like many of Peach County, has been designated as a high-transmission area due to the growing number of cases caused by the highly infectious Delta variant. According to CDC data, the county reported 699 new cases last week and only 21 percent of its eligible population has been fully vaccinated.
But the district has maintained face-to-face learning and Bulloch County School District Superintendent Charles Wilson refused to issue a warrant.
“Masks are welcome, but they are not needed in schools or on buses,” says the return plan to the school district. Social distancing is also not “mandatory, but is strongly encouraged,” according to the plan’s “widespread” guidelines.
In an apparent effort to cool masking concerns in schools, Wilson sent a voice email thanking teachers for their efforts and redirecting their masked warrant applications to a different topic: relaxed requirements. about what they could bring to school.
In the email sent last week and seen by The Daily Beast, Wilson extended the “little gesture” of allowing teachers to wear jeans to work for a month without addressing the concerns of the masks.
“I spoke to the directors today and we all agree that while it’s a small gesture, you’ll enjoy the freedom to wear jeans for the next month,” Wilson wrote. “So, of course, enjoy your jeans throughout the month of September (and the rest of August).”
Bulloch County schools also adjusted their infectious disease protocols to make quarantine optional for some students and employees if they come in contact with a confirmed case at the school but show no symptoms. Statesboro Herald reported.
A Statesboro High administrator told WTOC that several groups of teachers had been personally informed of Gary’s death while others had received an email about his passing during the day.
Bulloch County schools have maintained a weekly COVID-19 case balance since the start of the school year and last week reported 245 new cases, according to their website. Statesboro High School accounted for 42 of those cases, according to data from county schools.
When asked about Gary’s death and the security measures related to the district’s pandemic, Bulloch County Schools ’public relations director Hayley Greene told The Daily Beast in an email that the district makes no statements about the deaths of its employees or students out of respect for the privacy of their families.
“The school district is also implementing the requirements of the Georgia Department of Public Health in the best possible way,” he added. “We are continuously monitoring what is happening in our schools and offices and making the appropriate adjustments.”