Faculty members at Fannin County High School expressed concerns regarding the lack of a mask mandate at the school during a School Governance Team meeting Wednesday, August 19.
CTAE/Healthcare Science teacher Jeremy King, whose son has a congenital heart defect, expressed a deep concern about the effects that the lack of a mask mandate could have on the school.
“I am thankful for our administrators at the high school for limiting my role in contacts where I can actually be selective of where I am and who I’m around,” King said. “I have that control on who I can stay away from to keep my distance, and I can choose to wear my mask, but as I’ve talked to my students ... when they come into my classroom I have no power. I have nothing that I can do to suggest that we wear a mask unless we go into a lab, which I’ve determined that if we go into a lab mode, I can strongly suggest a required mask, and they’ll wear it. That’s been my way around it, because I have no control over what those students do on a daily basis, and who they’re around.
“I only have control over myself, so I have a big line in my classroom, a big piece of tape. I’ve moved desks away from me, because my fear, and I understand that I have to come to work, and I will do my job wholeheartedly to my fullest capability, but my concern is that my desire to educate other people’s kids causes me to take something back home to mine.”
He asked that the system have a conversation regarding mask use explaining, that even with one of the largest classrooms in the school, he is not able to properly socially distance and can only keep students around three feet apart for his 90 minute class periods.
Academic Coach Amy Williams addressed the board as a representative for several faculty members who had reached out to her regarding mask use. She referenced Georgia Department of Education Superintendent Richard Woods’ press release encouraging mask use for schools offering face-to-face options, and Georgia and Fannin County’s percentage increases in positive COVID-19 cases.
“We appreciate the protocols put into place by our administrators, but if we are to extend the amount of time we’re able to continue face-to-face instruction, which we would all agree is the best, we must take extra steps,” Williams said. “Some of our classes are still large, and teachers in those classrooms cannot maintain the recommended distances. This is one of the many places when masks are necessary to slow the spread and protect our teachers.
“Superintendent Woods has given local boards of education the authority to mandate masks through the student dress code. We respectively request the Student Governance Team to amend our current student dress code to include mandated masks.”
Superintendent Dr. Michael Gwatney explained that the decision to mandate mask use could not come from the Student Governance Team, because the board could not make a decision mandating more than the system-wide requirement decisions made based on legal counsel.
According to Gwatney, the decision to not mandate mask use came after discussions with both school board attorney Lynn Doss and a public school district attorney from Harben, Hatley & Hawkins, both of whom explained that while the district could require masks, they could not enforce the requirement constitutionally.
“I don’t want us to ever be in a situation where we have a rule that we’re not able to enforce,” Gwatney said. “If we have a rule that we’re not able to enforce, it doesn’t need to be a rule.”