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August 08, 2020

Georgia schools get an F on COVID after one week

You probably saw the pictures from North Paulding High School in Paulding County, Georgia, metro Atlanta, last week. The ones with crowded halls, no social distancing, and very few masks. The student who took some of the first of those photos, then Tweeted them, Hannah Watters was SUSPENDED by the school district before it eventually came to its senses. (A second student was also suspended; not clear from this BuzzFeed vs. the link above, what the status is on the second student.) But it remains unapologetic, and the superintendent refuses to even consider the idea of enforcing a mask mandate.

Update, Aug. 9: Supt. Brian Otott said North Paulding HS will have to go online for two days. And, had the gall to say this:
“I apologize for any inconvenience this schedule change may cause, but hopefully we all can agree that the health and safety of our students and staff takes precedence over any other considerations at this time,” he wrote. 
Sure.

Update Aug. 12: NPHS remains closed until next Monday. And it will reopen under an alternating days plan. Otott may finally be admitting nature bats last, but at a school board meeting, COVIDIOT parents were out in force.

(Broader update, Aug. 15: Gov. Brian Kemp, playing Greg Abbott, is trying to split hairs by letting local governments pass mask ordinances beyond any (currently non-existent) state ones, but ONLY on public property.)

It DOES have a couple of cops, as well as parking lot attendants; masks could be enforced more than they are. Turns out the district, one of suburban white (and presumably highly wingnut?) types, also has an online instruction racism problem.

Confirmed on that, per person who says she is Hannah's sister. (Don't see Hannah's own account; maybe she Tweeted by third party or its deleted, or she posted via Instagram?)
There you go. (Confirmed that someone named Shannon Ammons does teach there. And, this Shannon Ammons on Twitter is a wingnut.)

Meanwhile, another suburban Atlanta school district has gotten COVID hammered. Once again refudiating Tex-ass' own COVIDIOT John Cornyn and others on kids and coronavirus, the first to test positive in Cherokee County was a second-grader. It now (Aug. 12) has 925 students and staff ordered to quarantine. And, on the Georgia coast, a 7-year-old died. Seven-year-olds don't die from the flu.

Paulding County becomes an immediate object lesson in what not to do, and that "not" is a superintendent claiming we can't enforce masks. Sure you can. You've got a student code of conduct. There's probably a public health area already in there, and it probably, in a vague way, addresses this. If not? Next board meeting, which should be a specially called one on, oh, about this Monday night, you amend the student code of conduct. Period.

Paulding County school board president? You PUT THAT on the agenda if your COVIDIOT superintendent won't. You also start asking if you need to start a job search, re the student suspension as well as the refusal to enforce masking.

Cherokee County reminds us of the seriousness involved, and of what's likely to be popping up in spades at North Paulding High School in a week or two.

Or right now:
Oops.

And the district isn't helped by having a school board president as wingut as the super:
Part of this is surely the old maxim that a fish rots from the head down. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is likely tied with Florida's Ron DeSantis, and ahead of Greg Abbott and others, as the worst governor in America on coronavirus issues. Atlantic has more.

But it's not all head-down rot. Meet Marjorie Taylor Greene, the person who could be Paulding County's new Congresscritter. A real work of art.
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