A school district in South Carolina voted to end all in-person classes for seven days as COVID cases surge among students and staff in the district.
According to Live 5 News, Dorchester District 2 was forced to make that decision because 20 percent of the student body is out with COVID or in quarantine after close contact with an individual who tested positive. There’s also staff shortages in every department with an average of 10 nurses, 20-25 bus drivers, and 15-20 foodservice providers out daily.
The district had a hybrid model for students returning to school but the head nurse says fewer students are in virtual classes so classrooms are usually congested and since there are no masks, the district is experiencing the worst outbreak since the start of the pandemic.
On Wednesday, the district voted to move all schools to seven days of virtual learning beginning right after Labor Day.
According to Live 5 News, the board was presented with three options by the administration to temporarily go virtual.
A number of individuals walked out of the meeting because they were not given the option to vote on a fourth option—having the students return to the classroom in the middle of a deadly pandemic and staff shortages.
One such individual was board member Barbara Crosby, who believes children should be in the classroom no matter what because God decides whether they live or die, according to Friendly Atheist.
“Now, I hope and pray our kids don’t get deathly ill or we don’t lose any children. But you know what? That’s not my — that’s up to God,” Crosby told Live 5 News anchor Raphael James.
Asked to clarify her comment since it sounded like she was saying the safety of children in schools is not her concern, Crosby said: “No, I didn’t say concern. I said that’s not going to be my decision. It’s going to be — I mean, God decides who lives or dies, right?”
