'Almost 60% of all new COVID-19 cases are now in Georgia’s K-12 schools, the state’s top epidemiologist said Tuesday.[...]said the highly contagious delta variant is responsible for the surge.' mdjonline.com/news/almost-60…
'“The delta variant began spreading in Georgia around July 4,” Drenzek told a virtual meeting of the state’s Board of Public Health. “There has been an exponential increase in cases, hospitalizations and deaths over the last 60 days.”'
'According to Monday’s COVID totals provided by the state Department of Public Health, more than 1.1 million Georgians have contracted coronavirus since the pandemic began in March 2020. A total of 20,705 Georgians have died, and there have been more than 76,000 hospitalizations.
'According to data provided by Drenzek to the board, there has been a 20-fold increase in cases; a 13-fold increase in hospitalizations; and a 17-fold increase in COVID deaths since July 1.'
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'After the school sent a letter home to parents, which failed to characterize the incident as antisemitic, @ADL sent a letter to the Cobb County School District and Pope High School officials, offering assistance in addressing the incident and seeking information'
@ADL 'on the district’s plan to respond to the incident and prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future – the letter went unanswered.' atlanta.adl.org/news/pr-adl-co…
'he spoke of masks as tools of government overreach, accusing the CDC of doublespeak. We don’t need mandates to know what to do, he said on Fox and Friends.' ajc.com/news/investiga…
'It wasn’t until intensive care units filled with COVID-19 patients, and the death toll was skyrocketing toward 20,000, that the governor did more to try to boost vaccinations.'
'“This is one of the first times in modern American history where we have a group of elected officials willing to put political chips down on a particular poker table, when those political chips are the lives of their constituents,” Koehn said.'
Since August. 'Georgia has lost more than 2 dozen teachers, staff since start of school year to COVID-19' @GovKemp, this is on you. wsbtv.com/news/local/atl…
They were teachers and coaches. They were bus drivers and school resource officers. They were administrative assistants and daycare teachers. They were lunchroom managers and education specialists.'
@GovKemp 'Leah Ann Tinsley, 64, died of COVID-19 on Sept. 11, according to her son. She was a bookkeeper with the Board of Education and had worked at Rutland Middle School. She leaves behind a son and grandson.'
Per a stakeholder, also re:the hate crime incident at Pope and others: 'Cobb’s ban on talking about bias, hate and race make it impossible for school counselors to guide students through difficult and complex conversations in developmentally appropriate ways as we are trained'
'In absence of being allowed to support students (the ones harmed AND the ones inflicting the harm) through this so they all end up doing better and being healthy emotionally, harsh punishments will be the go to'
This stakeholder has spoken to @ADL/ @ADLSoutheast and fears that the ban on CRT is an effective gag order on Cobb employees from discussing these issues with students, even when needed. Stakeholder fears the situation will get worse due to lack of addressing appropriately.
Some takeaways: A district in Texas found a 16% positivity rate. 25% of the largest districts do not have mask mandates. More kids have been infected since August than the entire pandemic. washingtonpost.com/health/2021/09…
More about Pope HS: 'In a seemingly unrelated incident Thursday, some school property was damaged, with sinks ripped from their walls and mirrors stolen, according to the school's PTSA.' mdjonline.com/news/pope-high…
Pope PTSA claimed the theft/vandalism was a TikTok challenge: 'The post also notes the vandalism may be part of a "challenge" trending on the social media app Tik Tok encouraging students to boast about having stolen school property. '
Pope PTSA did use the words 'hate crime': "Many will call these teenage pranks, but these are hate crimes - and destroying property and stealing from your school is a felony."