Public comments, an agenda item and an update from the superintendent kept COVID-19 at the top of Tuesday night’s meeting of the Aiken County Board of Education.
Board members learned the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control reports 1,112 quarantined students out of the more than 22,000 student body and 51 quarantines employees among the roughly 3,300 employees.
Board members first heard from Don Quigley, who said he has four grandchildren in Aiken County schools. He said his grandson was advised that he had been in close contact with a student diagnosed with COVID-19 but if he could provide proof he was vaccinated, he would be exempt from quarantine.
MORE: Aiken County Kicks Off the School Year
“This is coercion, plain and simple, to try to get him to take the COVID mRNA gene therapy shots. It’s not a vaccination,” said Quigley. “For the last 18 months, our children have been used as pawns in this fake pandemic. I ask you as our elected representatives to fully educate yourselves on the true scientific facts surrounding COVID-19 and the mRNA gene therapy shot.”
Board Chairman Dr. John Bradley used his comment period to respond.
“I don’t think you have a right to make my child sick,” he said. “If you don’t take precautions; if you don’t want to take the vaccine; if you don’t want to wear a mask or do all the other things and you want to send your kid to school and he makes half a dozen others sick, we end up quarantining half the school. That’s just not fair. That makes no sense.”
[adrotate banner=”54″]
Bradley said he hears from people asking the district to make children safe in the schools, but the board is preempted from doing that by the South Carolina legislature. The district can no longer offer hybrid classes, only in-person or fully virtual school. The board is also not permitted to mandate mask-wearing.
He said, “No matter that data, in spite of what you just heard, there’s any number of studies that show wearing a mask reduces your chances of getting an infectious disease — and COVID in particular — significantly.”
COVID-19 was also at the heart of an agenda item designed to incentivize teachers and support staff to get vaccinated against the virus. It allows up to 10 days emergency paid sick leave for qualifying COVID-19 related reasons. Those include being advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine or experiencing symptoms and seeking a medical diagnosis. It covers all fully-vaccinated full time and part time staff.
During the discussion prior to voting, District 2 board member Jason Crane said, “I don’t like segregating our staff into two categories that one gets additional sick time and one doesn’t. I struggle with that.”
District 5 representative Barry Moulton added, “I agree with the idea of a policy change, however I I don’t follow a particular political view on this; I follow the medical data. The data is very conflicting. Does the vaccination work, does it not work? Is it a vaccination as Mr. Quigley said? I think the Johnson and Johnson was a vaccine, but the mRNA gene therapies are not truly a vaccination. Us not being medical doctors, I don’t know that I like us separating the two groups of people.”
When the vote was called, the policy was approved on a 6 – 2 vote with Moulton and Crane voting against it.
[adrotate banner=”13″]
Superintendent King Laurence updated the board on last week’s back to school activities. He said this year is more of a challenge than last year because the district has lost some of the mitigation strategies it had it place including the loss of hybrid learning and the loss of remote learning unless there is a significant outbreak.
“Our tools are limited to cleaning and disinfecting, handwashing, masks and vaccination,” he outlined. “Of course, right now we can’t require masks and vaccinations. I probably can’t require anyone to wash their hands.”
As he broke down the number of quarantined students and staff, he said 147 students tested positive for COVID-19 leading to 1,112 students quarantined. It was 22 positive employees resulting in the 51 staff quarantines.
MORE: Growth Means New Schools in Aiken County
“I commend our school nurses and principals and other members of the contact tracing teams who investigated every potential close contact. It is a very labor-intensive process that goes well into the night. Every night. Goes through the weekend every weekend,” said Laurence.
He said, based on reports from other districts across South Carolina, he anticipates the number of cases and quarantines continuing and perhaps increasing.
Aiken County has resumed posting its weekly update confirming student and staff cases that have been reported to SCDHEC. That information, which is updated every Tuesday, can be accessed here.
Dana Lynn McIntyre is a Staff Reporter with The Augusta Press. You can reach her at dana@theaugustapress.com.
[adrotate banner=”56″]
