Three members of the Cobb Board of Education have signed a letter to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp asking him to prioritize teacher vaccinations and provide other safety measures related to COVID-19.
The letter was written by Cobb school board member Jaha Howard and signed by Charisse Davis and Tre’ Hutchins, as well as 10 other school board members from other metro Atlanta school districts, including Atlanta, DeKalb, Clayton and Gwinnett.
The letter, which was dated Sunday, mentions two teacher deaths in the Cobb County School District last week, and said that “we stand as champions for the men and women who dedicate their lives to educating our students.”
In addition to prioritizing vaccines, the signatories are asking for medical grade face masks be provided for every school staff member and for the state to “collect and review anonymous COVID-related feedback from public education staff.”
The letter comes after the Cobb school board last week announced that two elementary school teachers died after being hospitalized with COVID and pneumonia.
They were Dana Johnson of Kemp Elementary School and Cynthia Lindsey, a paraprofessional at Sedalia Park Elementary School.
Their deaths prompted a protest by more than 100 teachers outside the Cobb school district offices Thursday during school board meetings.
Several of them addressed the board, demanding all-remote learning due to high COVID case counts and teacher absences.
The board didn’t discuss COVID during their meetings, and when Howard asked Superintendent Chris Ragsdale to comment, he declined. When Howard pressed him for an answer, board chairman Randy Scamihorn cut him off.
Among those addressing the board was a school counselor who asked Ragsdale and two board members not wearing masks—David Banks and David Chastain of East Cobb—to wear them in honor of Patrick Key.
He was an art teacher at Hendricks Elementary School who died of COVID on Christmas Day.
But Ragsdale, Chastain and Banks did not put on masks, and the incident has made national headlines.
Face-to-face classes resumed in Cobb on Monday, after all instruction was remote in the school district last week.
During that week, however, the Cobb school district reported 383 new COVID-19 cases. They include 13 active cases each at Dickerson Middle School and Pope High School, 11 at Lassiter High School , 10 at Walton High School and 9 at Bells Ferry Elementary School.
You can read the board members’ letter to Kemp by clicking here.
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