Judge: Lee’s Action on Masks Interferes with Safe Access to Schools

A federal judge today blocked Gov. Bill Lee’s executive order allowing parents to opt-out of mask mandates in schools.

WTVC-NewsChannel9 has more:

U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman issued the preliminary injunction after parents of students with health conditions argued that the Republican governor’s executive order endangered their children and hurt their ability to attend in-person classes by allowing others to opt-out of a mask mandate

In the ruling, Lipman wrote that the ability to safely access schools was a guaranteed right and that the executive order impedes this right.

“Plaintiffs offered sufficient evidence at this stage to demonstrate that the Executive Order interferes with Plaintiffs’ ability to safely access their schools,” the judge wrote.

Chalkbeat has additional reporting:

“It is that unmasked presence that creates the danger to these plaintiffs,” she wrote. “Universal masking is a reasonable accommodation that the governor’s executive order refuses to make available to schools, school systems and, in this case, the Shelby County Health Department.”

Friday’s ruling only affects Shelby County, where the executive order was in effect from Aug. 16 to Sept. 3, when it was blocked by the court’s temporary restraining order. Gov. Bill Lee’s order still stands in other counties.

“The public interest certainly recognizes the rights of parents,” she said, “but a universal masking requirement to protect students’ health does not significantly impact their ability to direct their education any more than would a uniform policy or requiring that students receive certain vaccinations before attending school.”

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Teaching Vacancies Up in Shelby County

The number of teaching position vacancies in Shelby County has increased since the start of the school year, reports Chalkbeat:

The Memphis district started the school year with 217 unfilled teaching jobs on Aug. 9, and that number has grown to 227 as of Monday, the district’s human resources chief, Yolanda Martin, said. That represents a dramatic increase in vacancies from around this time last year, when the district had just 63 unfilled positions as of the first day of school.

The rise in openings follows a wave of teacher resignations. Since May, 367 district educators have resigned from their positions, Martin told school board members during a committee meeting on Monday. The district saw a similar figure last year: 389 teachers resigned during the 2019-20 school year.

Normally, I’d write about teacher pay (which is abysmal in TN) or remind readers that COVID-19 has been especially demanding. I might point out the repeated warnings about a teacher shortage. Or, note that all the “disruption” sought by so called “ed reformers” is really disruptive – to kids, teachers, schools, and families.

But, I’m just going to stop. The story is there. Teachers are leaving. The job is incredibly challenging. And there have been people shouting about this crisis coming for years now.

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8 is Enough?

The Tennessee Lookout reports on the educators across the state who have died so far this school year from COVID-19. The count at the time of publication was 8, though getting an exact number is difficult because there is no central source keeping track of educator deaths related to the pandemic.

More:

At least eight Tennessee public school employees – three elementary school teachers, one pre-k assistant, a cafeteria worker, a bus driver and two high school teachers – have died since the school year began after contracting COVID-19. The total is an imperfect tally of a grim statistic that no one government agency or private entity is currently monitoring in a systematic way.

The educator deaths come as Gov. Bill Lee continues to attempt to stop mask mandates in local school districts. It’s also noteworthy that a number of districts around the state have closed recently in order to mitigate the spread of the virus.

Here’s how Tennessee Lookout went about determining the numbers so far:

The eight deaths were confirmed through family members, school staff, pastors, media reports and online obituaries. In each instance, the school employees had been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the days or weeks prior to their deaths, and in each case there is no definitive answer on where someone contracted the virus. Individual schools cited privacy rules in declining to comment about the causes of death among their staff members.

The story is a grim tale in a year where state policy expressly prevents districts from using remote learning options in order to mitigate COVID spread. Not only has Gov. Lee taken action to attempt to stop mask mandates, but he also visits schools without wearing a mask because, in his words, he’s “vaccinated” and “feels safe.” Of course regardless of vaccination status, it is possible to transmit the COVID-19 virus.

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Rutherford County Adopts Mask Mandate in Schools

Rutherford County became the latest middle Tennessee school district to institute a mask mandate last week, with the measure taking effect on Monday (Sept. 13th). WPLN has more:

Just days after Rutherford County Schools failed to vote on an updated pandemic policy, the school board has adopted a temporary mask mandate. The policy goes into effect on Monday.

More than 10,000 students were quarantined for at least one day last week, as the county continues to exceed its previous winter highs. The county had 4,305 active cases on Friday and reached its one-day peak on Monday with 658 new cases.

Still, not everyone will be wearing masks. Due to Gov. Bill Lee’s executive order, parents will be allowed to exempt their children from mask mandates.

Rutherford joins Wilson, Williamson, and Davidson counties in adopting a mask mandate. While Sumner County was closed all last week due to the pandemic, there is currently no plan to implement a mask mandate there.

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Wilson County Parents, Doctors Call for Mask Mandate Ahead of School Board Meeting

As the Wilson County School Board prepares to meet tonight and discuss COVID-19 mitigation strategies, a group of parents, doctors, and concerned citizens is calling on the Board to adopt a universal mask mandate. The call for a mandate comes in the wake of a surge of COVID cases in Wilson County and recent school closures in the district as a result of COVID spread.

Wilson County students returned to the classroom after a 10-day break during which time there was no online learning available, interrupting students’ education at the beginning of the year.

Right now, in Wilson County, at least 1 in 5 people tested are infected with COVID.  Over the past 14 days, 579 students have tested positive for COVID, and thousands more have had to quarantine.

“Our children want to be in school,” said Laura Maben, a Wilson County parent and board certified family nurse practitioner.  “My child wants to be with friends.”

Ms. Maben, who also provides health care as an emergency room nurse, continued, “I am asking the Wilson County School Board to  protect the students they are charged to care for!  Otherwise, parents will be left to deal with this pandemic on their own as schools open and close, children are left without virtual learning support, and parents are forced to juggle work schedules or miss work entirely.”

Tennessee has led the nation in daily new positive cases per 100,000, surpassing numbers not even seen during the highest points of the pandemic.

Caroline Cooper Huddleston, also a Wilson County parent of an elementary school student, added, “Around the world, people are looking at us, the Volunteer State, where we pride ourselves on caring for one another, and asking ‘how on earth did this happen?’”

Ms. Huddleston also leads a parent group, Wilson County Parents for Truth.  “In Tennessee, school districts have had to contend with constantly changing and obfuscated guidance from Gov. Bill Lee and the Departments of Health and Education,” she said..  “They have been left to interpret changing signals veiled behind politically motivated statements.  I do not envy the position school districts in our state are in.“However, for the Wilson County school board to use the lack of guidance as an excuse for not strengthening virus mitigation policies is simply unacceptable,”  Ms. Huddleston concluded.

Dr. Amy Gordon Bono, MD, MPH, a primary care physician, said, “All children deserve to be safe in school, no exceptions.  We know how to do this.  As a trained healthcare provider, I, along with 6,300 other colleagues across the state, strongly oppose Governor Lee’s Executive Order 84 allowing parents to opt-out of masking for their students. Scientific evidence demonstrates that masks can decrease the spread of COVID-19. Scientific evidence demonstrates that children can be infected with COVID-19 and that children can spread the infection to adults.

“I strongly urge the Wilson County School Board to put children’s safety and wellbeing first,” continued Dr. Bono.   “If Governor Lee will not step up and lead in this crisis by rescinding his Executive Order, then I am asking the Wilson County School Board to follow the lead of other school districts in Tennessee who have defied the Governor’s order in order to protect the kids they are charged to care for. Will you stand with our children and children’s hosptials like St. Jude and the thousands of health professionals telling you what you need to do to keep all kids safe in school, no exceptions? Or will you continue to stand against us and put children and their families in harms way?”

Ms. Maben added, “I understand and empathize with the desire to ’get back to normal.’ But, our best chance at doing that, particularly with our youngest children who can’t yet be vaccinated, is universal masking to decrease the spread of infection, protect the health and safety of our children and our community, and keep our schools open safely.” 

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COVID Crisis in TN Classrooms

As school systems close amid COVID-19 spikes, some districts are also seeing teachers leave the profession.

WBIR in Knoxville has video of a local teacher who is giving up her job due to concerns over the spread of COVID and lack of action by the district to mitigate spread.

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Why Not Waivers

As entire school districts close around the state due to the COVID-19 crisis, Commissioner of Education Penny Schwinn has granted limited waiver authority to allow a shift to remote learning. Why, then, are districts closing without even asking for a waiver?

WPLN in Nashville explains:

As of Wednesday afternoon, 13 districts have applied to temporarily shift some schools online and 8 were approved. But other school systems have closed without pursuing the state waiver for virtual learning.

“It does not apply for an entire district,” said Jeff Luttrell, the superintendent of Wilson County Schools, which has been shutdown all this week.

“And our numbers determined to us that we needed to shut down our district for a few days, to see if we could kind of stop the spread and allow some people to get healthy,” he added.

The waiver issue is the latest in a series of ineffective state policies as Tennessee’s leadership continues to mishandle COVID-19. Now, indicators suggest Tennessee is the number one state in the nation for pediatric COVID-19 cases.

Tennessee also leads the nation in overall cases per population:

Meanwhile, Gov. Lee has said he has no plans to change the state’s COVID mitigation strategy.

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School’s Out for Sumner

Yet another Tennessee school district has announced a temporary closure due to COVID-19. Sumner County Schools will close from Sept. 7-10 (next week) in order to attempt to stop the spread of COVID-19. The move comes as the Lee Administration continues to insist that children should be in school and is failing to cooperate with districts seeking remote learning options. As with other districts closing due to COVID, stockpiled inclement weather days will be used. To be clear: There will be no in-person instruction and no online/remote learning. Schools are simply closed.

The move also comes as health officials report that Tennessee has the highest rate of COVID infections in children in the nation:

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Lee Administration Faces Lawsuit, Federal Investigation Over Botched COVID Response

The Administration of Gov. Bill Lee has come under fire in recent days as the COVID-19 crisis is cancelling schools in some districts.

The latest bad news for Lee comes from an announcement today that the U.S. Department of Education is launching an investigation into state policies in five states (including Tennessee) that have sought to ban local mask mandates in schools.

Here’s more from U.S. News:

The Biden administration opened investigations into five states over whether their bans on mask mandates discriminate against students with disabilities – a move that marks the most aggressive action by the Education Department to date in its efforts to support local school leaders trying to return students to school safely amid a surging pandemic.

“The Department has heard from parents from across the country – particularly parents of students with disabilities and with underlying medical conditions – about how state bans on universal indoor masking are putting their children at risk and preventing them from accessing in-person learning equally,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said Monday in a statement. “It’s simply unacceptable that state leaders are putting politics over the health and education of the students they took an oath to serve.”

Meanwhile, families of medically vulnerable children in the Shelby County School district are suing the Lee Administration claiming the opt-out policy regarding masks puts their children at risk. WREG has more:

The lawsuit alleges Lee’s order forces parents with vulnerable children to decide between an education or their health and safety. It’s a position that Timmons believes is not right.

“When a parent of a kid that has COVID says ‘My kid doesn’t have to wear a mask,’ they’re not making a decision on their child health. They’re making a decision about other people children’s health and that affects children with disabilities,” Timmons said.

Research from John Hopkins University shows that Tennessee ranks sixth in the country in new cases per capita and that one-third of COVID cases in state are children.

This week, Shelby County also filed a suit against the governor.

And, Phil Williams of NewsChannel5 is reporting that last week was the worst of the pandemic in terms of new infections for school-aged children:

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COVID Cancels Class

A growing number of Tennessee school districts are cancelling classes in some or all schools this coming week.

Here’s more:

The moves come even as Commissioner of Education Penny Schwinn has called a press conference for Monday (8/30) to discuss options for districts in terms of COVID mitigation and remote learning.

If your district or school is closed or planning to close because of COVID, please email me: andy@tnedreport.com

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