Robbinsville – After much discussion and thought, the Graham County Board of Education voted to keep wearing masks within the district as “optional.”
The board did add one caveat to the policy at a specially called Aug. 19 meeting, however; masks will become mandatory at a particular school if at least 10 percent of either staff or students have tested positive for COVID-19 or are in quarantine.
Graham County Health Director Beth Booth and Graham County Health Department head nurse Lorita Eller both addressed the board early in the meeting, providing statistics and recommendations about how the district should proceed.
Booth noted that as of the morning of Aug. 19, there had been 15 positive cases for ages children 18 and under over a five-day span. In the last month, Booth said that 45 out of 112 positive COVID tests – or roughly 27 percent – were children.
“The new research put out says that you’re about 400 percent more likely to catch COVID if you have not had the COVID vaccine,” Booth said, while summarizing a virtual meeting held with Dr. Mandy Cohen with the N.C. Department of Health & Human Services on Aug. 18.
“The vaccine is showing some pretty significant benefits, but it does not stop you from catching the virus. It lessens your chances and greatly reduces your chance at hospitalization by about 95 percent.”
Booth added that the local health department stocks both the Johnson & Johnson and Moderna vaccines, and would order the Pfizer vaccine if enough interest is shown in that particular shot.
However, the Graham County Health Department does not have ultra-cold storage, so a Pfizer shot would have to be received quickly if brought to the county.
An Aug. 12 meeting between health department staff, Graham County Board of Education Chairman Rodney Nelson, Graham County Superintendent Angie Knight and school district medical staff brought about a 10-day quarantine policy for students. The quarantine does not apply to instructors.
“That is if they are exposed in a school setting,” Booth said. “That does not include extra-curricular activities or anything outside of the school, such as household exposure.
“We figured that (the 10-day quarantine) was the best compromise to stay with the N.C. Department of Health & Human Services’ recommendation and the CDC. Fourteen school districts have changed to mask-mandatory and the huge advantage to that is if the children are exposed mask-on-mask, no home quarantine.”
Board of Education member Pam Knott later proposed several questions to Booth, saying she had completed a large amount of research on the virus and even read a 2 ½ page statement about her recommendation on what the board should decide.
“These days, there’s plenty of reason to fear. And these days, you can walk two paths: you can walk fear, or you can walk faith,” read the beginning of Knott’s statement.
“We cannot control what goes on in our community,” the statement later reads. “You can’t mandate personal responsibility. But we can give our staff and parents the freedom to choose to wear a mask.”
Knott’s statement ended with a recommendation of a 30-day mask mandate, with students and staff receiving a new mask every day as they enter school.
Eller relayed her advice based her role as the county’s head nurse to the board.
“These children (cases) are escalating at an alarming rate,” Eller said. “I see it. I do the follow-up. I see the test results, and I make the phone calls. This is not a joke. It is not a number to look at and say, ‘It’s not happening.’ These children are becoming infected at a greater rate than what we saw last year. It’s real, and we’ve yet to see the effect of school being in session.”