ESSEX COUNTY, Va. -- A couple dozen parents gathered at Tappahannock Elementary School Thursday to protest the Essex County School Board's recent decision to get rid of nearly all COVID-19 mitigation measures.
After a motion was passed during a school board meeting on January 31, the following coronavirus protocols are no longer in place:
- Mandatory masking
- Temperature checks
- Contact tracing
- Quarantines for exposures
- Social distancing
- Enhanced sterilization following outbreaks
“That made me extremely frustrated," said Essex father of two, Ronnie Sidney II.
He said while he understands some parents would no longer like to send their children to school with a mask, other prevention policies should remain in place.
“Now that we're going to allow kids to opt-out of the mask mandate, I feel our schools should be more safe, so the COVID-19 mitigation strategies should actually have been increased," Sidney said.
Meanwhile, other parents, including an Essex mother of one who wanted to go by Kristine, said kids deserve to go back to a pre-pandemic learning environment.
“It’s been enough. Enough is enough," she said. “The poor kids haven't even had the opportunity for the most part to be children. They've been masked, they've been separated.”
Essex County Schools Superintendent Dr. Harry Thomas said a majority of school board members likely felt motivated by Governor Glenn Youngkin's Administration to make the change. New K-12 guidance issued by the Virginia Department of Health and Department of Education after Governor Youngkin took office reads:
"Mitigation strategies that reduce COVID-19 transmission can be reduced now that effective vaccines are available, and the current predominant variant (Omicron) is causing less severe disease."
"I think they have structured their motion in keeping with some of that latest guidance," said Dr. Thomas. “My sense is that the board members felt that these protocols have inhibited the learning process."
However, Dr. Thomas said it's important to recognize the concerns of some parents and staff. In fact, he noted a significant number of teachers were absent for one day last week as word spread about an organized "sick-out" among instructors to protest the lack of COVID-19 protections.
"We need to acknowledge the concern that parents have about our school environments now with less mitigation, the concern of our staff members that are still uncomfortable with classroom settings and environments with students that are not masked," Thomas said. "So from an operational standpoint, we are trying our very best to take both perspectives."
According to the CDC, the county of Essex is currently experiencing a high transmission rate of COVID-19. When transmission is high, the Virginia Department of Health's Office of Epidemiology recommends that children 2+ wear masks in indoor settings.
“We can agree to disagree on the mask issue," Sidney said. "But I think we all can agree that we need to do whatever we can to keep our children safe.”
For Kristine, keeping children safe means going back to the basics like washing hands and wiping desks down.
“It's simple, basic hygiene that can mitigate," she said. "Why live in fear for the rest of your life?”
Dr. Thomas said it's possible some parents can request reasonable accommodations including distancing in the classroom and plexiglass desks.
He said a school board meeting is scheduled for Monday where members will clear up any confusion about the new plan.
