Teachers, students worried about school restart in Forsyth County

FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — As Forsyth County Schools prepares to return to class next week, some parents and teachers are raising concerns about their plans to keep everyone safe.

Missy Pounds, a mother of three, told Channel 2′s Mike Petchenik she is sending her children back to class for face-to-face learning, but with some reservations.

“Masks are expected, but they’re not mandatory so there is a choice. Teachers are not allowed to discuss masks at all with their students,” she said. “There is no incentive for wearing mask and no punishment for not wearing masks.”

Pounds said she’s concerned a lack of a mask mandate will allow for COVID-19 to spread rapidly through a school building.

“If even half the class aren’t wearing masks, then the teachers aren’t protected and none of the students are either if one of those students happens to be COVID positive and not know it.”

Pounds told Petchenik she’s reached out to Superintendent Jeff Bearden on several occasions to ask about policy and the plan for what happens when students or teachers contract the virus, and she’s gotten no response.

“There’s no transparency. A lot of us are nervous and anxious have a lot of unanswered questions,” she said. “We’re entrusting our children. Our teachers are risking their health so we need to know what the plan is.”

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Parent Natalie Buscko is keeping her three elementary school kids home under the district’s virtual learning option.

“We all have full-time jobs so it’s going to be difficult to support them, but the data doesn’t support sending them,” she said.

Buscko said she, too, is concerned about the plan for everyone who will be in class.

“We have a plan that doesn’t protect the faculty, staff and students and that’s a problem,” she said, adding that she believes the superintendent is playing politics.

“He went to the White House and made a promise to the President and now he’s trying to save face by putting politics above people and I just don’t feel like my children should be part of that experiment.”

Petchenik also heard from a teacher, who asked him not to identify her because she feared retribution.

“We should not be going back, period,” she said. “We’re surrounded by the top five counties of cases and we have employees who come from those counties.”

The teacher said she’s very concerned about the lack of a mask mandate as well.

“They are asking our teachers to be expendable, to bring it home to spouses who might be fighting cancer to take it home to multigenerational households,” she said.

District communications director, Jennifer Caraccialo, told Petchenik Forsyth County has one of the lowest infection rates per 100,000 in the metro, and can safely reopen.

“Obviously everyone has those concerns,” she said. “We understand those concerns, but we’re proceeding with our plan.”

Caraccialo said about 35% of the district’s elementary school students are taking classes virtually for at least the first nine weeks of school, with the option to extend past that date. She said the district was still enrolling middle and high schoolers in virtual classes this week.

She said the district isn’t requiring masks based on feedback from the community.

“The reason we went with the word ‘expected’ instead of required is that one the surveys and also at public board meetings, we heard from community members that either they could not wear a mask or their children could not wear a mask for multiple reasons,” she said. “We would prefer and expect people to wear a mask but we understand if a person isn’t wearing a mask that there’s a reason behind that and there won’t be any mask police or bullying for them.”

Caraccialo said the superintendent is letting the data drive his decisions, and his trip to Washington was to represent Georgia educators.

“He was honored to represent the entire state,” she said. “He went there to meet with national health leaders and national government leaders, not in particular one person.”

As for decisions about what happens if a student or teacher contracts the virus, Caraccialo said the district will abide by the decision tree released by the State Department of Education and Department of Health.

“It’s a large responsibility. We know there are many concerns out there,” she said. “We understand those concerns and have concerns as well.”

At least 60 students in Cherokee County quarantined after exposure to COVID-19 There have been four positive cases of COVID-19 at four different schools, just 4 days into the new year.

Cox Media Group