second highest rate of new infections<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThat\u2019s an improvement over Georgia\u2019s position as the state with the highest rate nationally the week before. But the state\u2019s recent progress in slowing the viral spread \u201cremains fragile,\u201d according to the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Forsyth County Schools reported 30 COVID-19 cases out of 55,600 face-to-face students and staff since school started Aug. 13. As of last week, the district reports 1.6% of face-to-face students and staff, or about 890 people, were in quarantine for direct exposure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recent spikes in positive tests at some schools caused some to quarantine large numbers of people as parents, teachers and students all strive for a preferred brick-and-mortar classroom experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Central Forsyth\u2019s senior Jing Lin said she is taking her humanities classes online, but is coming into the building for her advanced STEM classes, some of which are not offered online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have specific classes I had to take for STEM requirements, so that\u2019s like AP physics, organic chemistry, and learning all of that on the online platform is totally different from learning in class,\u201d she said. \u201cLike for physics, we always have labs to do, and especially for AP physics, where the exams are lab-based, so it\u2019s crucial for us to come in and get the lab hands-on aspects of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fellow senior Wesley McGee agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just nice to be able to interact with them face-to-face,\u201d McGee said. \u201cIt\u2019s different on a Zoom call than it is in person. So it was a lot of weighing the risk over the reward of being able to be around friends and teachers that I\u2019ve known for a few years now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lin, McGee and most of their classmates kept their face masks on during their classes. Forsyth Schools do not require masks, but about 80% of Central High\u2019s students wear them, Young said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are blessed that we\u2019ve got great kids, great families that know the importance of it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have a lot of folks that don\u2019t believe in it and want to exercise their rights, we\u2019re not shaming or guilting them. That\u2019s their call. We\u2019ve taken the angle that, even if it\u2019s not for you, if you don\u2019t believe you should wear it, it\u2019s good for your community, it sends a good message for your other neighbors in the classroom and friends in the hallways.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Giving students a choice and making sure they know not wearing masks could shut down schools is the right move, DeVos said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think if you lay out expectations and you give students the agency in meeting those expectations, and ensuring their ability to continue to be together with their peers, then people will do the right thing,\u201d she said. \u201cI think that it sounds like it\u2019s been working quite well here, the suggestion that this is our expectation, we\u2019re not going to mandate it, but we\u2019re going to expect that you\u2019re going to respect your peers, and we\u2019re going to respect one another. I think it works well that way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Continuing spread<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nGeorgia\u2019s State Schools Superintendent Richard Woods echoed DeVos\u2019 positive attitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOne of the things I\u2019ve heard throughout the state is that we\u2019ve found a silver lining,\u201d Woods said. \u201cIt\u2019s not all negative, doom and gloom, not necessarily what\u2019s sometimes being portrayed, but there\u2019s a lot of great things going on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But some medical experts are less upbeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think it is unfortunate that neither Secretary DeVos nor our state leadership are willing to acknowledge that we haven\u2019t managed the pandemic well enough to create the conditions for safe reopening of schools and universities for in-person instruction,\u201d said Georgia State University public health professor Dr. Harry J. Heiman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAccording to the White House Coronavirus Taskforce, we are the second worst state in the country for coronavirus transmission, with \u2018high levels of community transmission\u2019 in a majority of our counties. As a result, it is not a surprise that there have been multiple outbreaks at schools and universities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leaving the decision whether to wear a mask up to students is not in the interest of public health, Heiman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo suggest that not having a mask mandate is a responsible approach, especially for older students, reflects Secretary Devos\u2019 lack of understanding about both CDC guidelines and the measures necessary to ensure the health and safety of students, teachers, and staff,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have all seen the pictures from multiple high schools, now experiencing outbreaks, that \u2018gave students agency.\u2019 What children and adults of all ages need is clear communication and policies that are enforced to ensure their safety.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Georgia Department of Public Health reported 107 COVID-19 deaths Tuesday, bringing the state\u2019s death toll since the disease\u2019s February detection in Georgia to 5,262.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A report <\/a>released by the public health department Monday points to reductions in statewide case numbers and the seven-day average of new cases as positive developments, as well as decreases in case numbers in metro Atlanta counties that were home to the highest infection rates. But the report also lists schools and their athletic teams as areas of concern for increasing outbreaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSome of Forsyth\u2019s neighboring school systems have had a rockier start to the school year. Cherokee County directed more than 1,200 students and staff to quarantine as of Monday. Two high schools there are set to remain closed for in-person lessons until the end of the month after administrators sent a large number of students to quarantine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some students in Gwinnett County Schools, the state\u2019s largest district, are set to begin heading back for in-person lessons starting Wednesday after beginning the year with online classes. Just as the time came to return to classes earlier this month, 260 school system employees either tested positive for COVID-19 or had to be quarantined for potential exposure over the summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Effingham County near Savannah, 12 and five employees have been diagnosed with COVID-19, and another 171 are under quarantine, about 1.75% of the student population.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
United States Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos visited Forsyth Central High School Tuesday to take part in a roundtable discussion with educators about the district\u2019s reopening plans. Despite several high-profile COVID-19 outbreaks in early-opening Georgia school districts, DeVos painted a rosy picture of the state\u2019s school year so far. \u201cI think it\u2019s been good that schools are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18191,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7286],"tags":[8481,8480,8576,8474],"class_list":["post-18190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coronavirus","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-forsyth-county","tag-sun","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}