Parents voice mask-mandate concerns at Jackson school board meeting

Parents with children in Jackson School District schools spoke at the school board meeting Tuesday night to voice their concerns with the district's mask policy.

Jackson's current mask policy highly recommends students and staff to wear face coverings but does not require them to do so.

As a certified contact tracer at a local business, parent Lydia Sumner said she'd grade Jackson School District an "F" in terms of COVID-19 safety.

She has two children younger than 10-years-old who attend Jackson schools. Sumner said she'd educate them both at home if she had the time or money to do so.

"I've cried dropping them off [at school] because I do not feel like they are safe," Sumner said.

Forty Jackson students have COVID-19, according to associate superintendent Jessica Maxwell. She added 2.7% of the district's student population are in quarantine.

Maxwell said the district has quarantined 268 students in total. Of those 268 students, six tested positive for COVID-19, she said.

Superintendent Scott Smith announced to the board the district recently hired three new contact tracers. Previously, the district's administrative staff, nurses and a COVID-19 coordinator carried out contact tracing; all will still contact trace in addition to the new contact tracers, Smith said.

The board meeting had been routine before it opened up for public comment. Parent Michael Ornburn came before the board to speak after Sumner's allotted three minutes passed.

Ornburn said he was shocked the school district didn't follow the safety recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American Academy of Pediatrics and U.S. Department of Education.

Ornburn is a certified anesthesiologist at Southeast Hospital. He said Smith and assistant superintendent Matt Lacy asked him to speak at the meeting shortly after Ornburn and other parents drafted a letter to the board on their concerns.

Ornburn said his son in sixth grade faced microaggressions and offhand comments from students because he wore a mask in school.

"They [students] said things that made him feel guilty and responsible for the poor decision-making of adults around them," Ornburn said.

Not all parents on the agenda spoke against the district's current mask policy.

Nancy Blattel asked the board not to enact a mask mandate.

"Each family unit should be allowed the freedom to make choices based upon their beliefs and research," Blattel said. "Please continue to let me have the choice to allow my children to build natural immunity -- not only against COVID, but other illnesses."

Blattel expressed empathy toward Sumner and Ornburn. She also has young children, one in middle school and another in kindergarten.

"I can't judge what you've gone through, I can't even imagine," Blattel said. "But you also don't understand that my son comes home every night crying because he can't breathe through his mask."

After the meeting, Smith told the Southeast Missourian district officials monitor attendance levels of both students and staff. The district does not have an attendance benchmark where it would enact a mask mandate, Smith said, but all attendance variables "play a critical role in that decision."