Beginning Monday, all schools in Smith County School District will shut down for a two-week period due to high numbers of COVID-19 cases and quarantines, a school member said.
Board member Jay Arrington said the school board met via phone on Tuesday and voted unanimously to shut down the schools beginning Monday, Aug. 23. The board made the decision to delay the two-week shutdown until Monday so parents had time to make plans and find child care.
Unlike last year, the Mississippi Department of Education is requiring schools to offer in-person learning as the primary mode of instruction this year. Schools also stand to lose out on federal relief funding if they do not operate primarily in person, though schools are allowed to operate virtually for a time in the event of COVID-19 outbreaks or other emergency events.
The district will not be implementing virtual learning because of connectivity issues for many of their students, Arrington said. He estimates only about 25% of students in the rural district have reliable internet access.
The 2,443 student district reported 104 positive cases in students, teachers and staff and nearly 700 people quarantined on Tuesday.
He said several schools, including Mize and Taylorsville which he represents, are struggling with adequate staffing.
“We have a lot of staff that are positive or quarantined, and we cannot operate the schools,” said Arrington.
A request for comment from Superintendent Nick Hillman was not immediately returned Tuesday afternoon.
Several community members gathered at Raleigh High School Sunday morning following Robinson’s death. Among those was Pastor Ronald Wilbon, Robinson’s cousin, who spoke to the crowd. Signs stating “America please shut it down!” were propped up against the front of the school as Wilbon spoke.
Arrington said students will be making up the days during a holiday break or extending the school year.
Mississippi Development Authority Director John Rounsaville’s announced resignation on Aug. 13 came after a state investigation into reports he sexually harassed and touched three subordinate female MDA employees at a Biloxi bar during a business conference in July, sources familiar with the investigation and incident told Mississippi Today.
Following the investigation, a recommendation was made to the governor on July 29 that Rounsaville’s employment be terminated, the sources said.
Gov. Tate Reeves, who appointed Rounsaville to the post in January, announced in an Aug. 13 press release that Rounsaville would be “stepping down to pursue new opportunity” effective Aug. 31 and praised Rounsaville’s “leadership at MDA.” The release quoted Rounsaville saying he wanted to spend more time with his wife and children and less time traveling.
When asked for comment, Rounsaville on Tuesday sent Mississippi Today a written statement: “I didn’t live up to my own standards or MDA’s standards. My behavior was not reflective of my character. I deeply regret that, and I apologize to everyone involved. I believed voluntarily resigning was the appropriate consequence. And, it was my hope to save MDA, my colleagues, and my family further embarrassment by doing so.”
Reeves’ office did not immediately respond to questions about Rounsaville’s resignation. Those questions include why the resignation announcement came 15 days after the final report that recommended Rounsaville’s termination, and why Rounsaville was allowed to stay on at the job for another two weeks after that. Reeves has been traveling frequently and was out of the state at times during the investigation. He returned sometime midweek before Rounsaville’s Friday resignation.
Often, when state employees resign, they make it effective at a month’s end to accrue more service time in the state retirement system. As MDA director, the state’s lead economic development official representing the state across the country and abroad, Rounsaville makes a state salary of $180,000 a year. MDA directors typically also receive a stipend from a consortium of private businesses under a 2012 state law. The total amount cannot exceed $250,000.
The incidents in question occurred on July 9, when Rounsaville, other MDA employees and economic development officials from across the state attended the Mississippi Economic Development Council annual conference at the Beau Rivage Casino Resort in Biloxi. Sometime in the early morning hours of July 9, Rounsaville and others were drinking in a still-crowded casino bar.
Sources said Rounsaville appeared intoxicated and propositioned the three female MDA employees for sex and rubbed against or touched them. One state government official familiar with the incident described it as Rounsaville being “obnoxious and drunk, hanging on to them and making inappropriate comments,” but said it was an isolated incident and out of character for Rounsaville, whom they otherwise defended.
Sources said the women were reluctant to report the incident, but that more than one non-MDA economic development official who witnessed it vowed they would report it if the women didn’t.
The women reported the incident to MDA’s human resources office the following week, the sources said. State government procedure for when such allegations are made against a department director is for the state personnel director, not the agency HR department, to investigate. As MDA director, Rounsaville reports directly to Reeves.
State Personnel Board Director Kelly Hardwick notified Rounsaville and the governor’s office of the complaints and started an investigation into the matter, sources said. Hardwick completed his investigation and submitted a report to Reeves on July 29, including a recommendation that Rounsaville either be fired or resign, the sources said. They said the investigation concluded there was no cause for state criminal or legal action against Rounsaville.
Citing an exemption of personnel records from the state’s open records laws, the state personnel director would not supply Mississippi Today a copy of the final report from the investigation into Rounsaville’s actions.
Hardwick, in a statement, said: “It is my understanding of state law that matters related to personnel issues are not public records. So then, I cannot share or disclose any information related to the investigations that I conduct without permission. I have no further comment on this matter.”
Mississippi Today also sent a request for correspondence and other records about the matter to Reeves’ office, which did not immediately respond to the request or questions.
The three women are still employed at MDA, and sources said to their knowledge none have filed criminal complaints or taken legal action against the state or Rounsaville.
It is Mississippi Today’s policy not to name alleged victims of sexual harassment or assault.
Under state personnel regulations, Reeves has great authority over direct-report officials and was not bound by the personnel recommendation to fire Rounsaville, ask him to resign or take any other disciplinary action.
MDA is the state’s lead economic and community development agency. As agency head, Rounsaville was overseeing about 300 employees. MDA works to recruit new businesses to the state and retain and expand existing industry and manages the state’s energy programs. MDA also promotes Mississippi as a tourism destination.
Reeves had appointed Rounsaville as permanent MDA director after he had served as interim since May of 2020.
Rounsaville previously served as state director for USDA Rural Development for the President Donald Trump administration, a post he also held from 2006 to 2008 under President George W. Bush. Rounsaville served as deputy chief of staff and other roles for former U.S. Rep. Chip Pickering and as a policy adviser to former Gov. Haley Barbour.
Rounsaville is a decorated military veteran, serving as a JAG and major at the 186th in the Mississippi Air Force National Guard. He is a master’s graduate of Mississippi State University and received a law degree from the University of Mississippi.
In 2017, then-Gov. Phil Bryant issued an executive order that requires all state employees to take online sexual harassment training, after the state Department of Public Safety and Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics paid settlements in two separate lawsuits alleging sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation. Two high ranking DPS officials resigned over one of the cases, but not until after news reports came out months after the settlements.
At the time, Bryant said: “Everyone deserves a workplace free from intimidation and hostility. I will not tolerate sexual harassment in those agencies that fall under my control.”
This photo gallery is part of our new initiative, MT Listens. Learn more about the project here or be part of it by taking our survey.
Take a virtual stroll through Yazoo City, a historic Mississippi community, through the lens of Mississippi Today photojournalist Vickie King.
Yazoo City is just one of five communities our newsroom is focusing on for our community listening project, MT Listens. The others are Canton, Forest, Moss Point and New Albany.
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The Yazoo County Courthouse, located in the 200-block of East Broadway in Yazoo City, is located in downtown.Yazoo City is considered the “Gateway to the Delta.”
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Main street is filled with colorful storefronts.
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The former amphitheater and old Bank of Yazoo on Main Street in Yazoo City
The Parker-Roark home located in the historic Town Creek District on East Broadway Streeet, was ravaged by a fire in 2020.
The Crump Fountain, a historic landmark located at the corner of Main and Washington Streets in Yazoo City, was erected to honor the memory of George Crump, a local farmer who left his estate to the Yazoo City public schools in 1884.
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“Stand still long enough, and it’ll get you too.”
A passing motorist in Yazoo City, referring to the kudzu along the roadside
Kudzu was introduced as a novelty and then to help combat erosion in the 1800s. Although animals forage on it and it has a multitude of other uses, the vine is considered an invasive species.
A view of operations at the International Paper Company, west of Yazoo City on MS 149 North/MS 16 West. The company is a paper, packaging and pulp company.
“According to local legend… On May 25, 1904, the witch of Yazoo City broke out of these curious chain links surrounding her grave and burned down Yazoo City. Writer Willie Morris’s classic ‘Good Old Boy’ brought national renown to this vengeful woman and her shameful deed.”
The grave of the Witch of Yazoo City at historic Glenwood Cemetery in Yazoo City.
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Historic Glenwood Cemetery in Yazoo City is the final resting place of author Willie Morris and the Witch of Yazoo City.
The grave of the Witch of Yazoo City at historic Glenwood Cemetery in Yazoo City. It is said that those who disturb the grave of the witch will be cursed. Chains still surround her final resting place. The grave marker was damaged by vandals. The stone is dedicated to Ray Rogers, Sr., a caretaker (sexton) in the 1990s.
A Canadian National freight train rolls through the west end of Yazoo City just south of town on its way north.
Be part of this project.
If you live in Canton, Yazoo City, Forest, Moss Point or New Albany, please take a minute to fill out the below survey, or share it with someone you know.
The median salary for Mississippi school district superintendents was $120,000 for the 2020-21 academic year, according to data the state Department of Education sent Mississippi Today.
Tupelo Public School District’s Robert Picou was the highest paid superintendent, making $219,000, followed by Jackson Public School District’s Errick Greene with $215,000.
Generally, superintendents of districts with larger student bodies earned larger compensations; DeSoto County School District, JPS, and Rankin County School Districts have the biggest enrollments and are among the top of the salary list.
While most of the 144 superintendents in the dataset worked full-time, several part-time ones still earned large salaries. Coahoma County School District’s Ilean Richards and North Bolivar Consolidated School District’s Maurice Smith, for example, both made six figures despite being listed as part-time.
Of the full-time superintendents, 87% made at least six figures.
For comparison, Mississippi’s average teacher salary was $46,843 in 2019-20. The median superintendent salary is two and a half times that amount.
Halfway down Mississippi State University’s COVID-19 “Vaccine FAQ” page is the question, “are students going to be required to be vaccinated?”
MSU’s answer, in short, is no: While it encourages students to get vaccinated for COVID-19, the university says that it can’t require the shot without action from the Institutions of Higher Learning, the governing body for Mississippi’s public universities.
“Mississippi law and IHL Board policies require that students obtain certain vaccinations before attending IHL institutions,” the answer reads. “This does not currently include the COVID-19 vaccine. Unless and until state law and IHL Board policy is amended, the University does not have the legal authority to require any additional vaccinations.”
That’s not the case, IHL spokesperson Caron Blanton told Mississippi Today.
While the COVID-19 vaccine is not presently listed in IHL’s immunization policy, Blanton wrote in an email that does not mean Mississippi’s public universities cannot require it.
IHL’s immunization policy “represents the minimum requirements that must be enforced by the universities,” Blanton wrote. “Additional requirements are not prohibited.”
Across the nation, more than 700 schools are requiring students or employees to receive the COVID-19 vaccine before the start of the fall semester, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. To date, no college or university in Mississippi is requiring students to receive the vaccine, though some are incentivizing it.
In a second email to Mississippi Today, Blanton elaborated that although “the general practice has been for IHL institutions to not impose additional requirements because (IHL’s) immunization requirements were crafted based on recommendations from the Mississippi State Department of Health,” the board’s policy “does not prohibit IHL institutions from imposing additional vaccination requirements.”
Past instances where IHL’s institutions have required additional vaccines beyond those specified in the board’s policy “have been limited to students working towards their program of study in a clinical setting (i.e., nursing and medical students),” Blanton wrote.
IHL’s current immunization policy requires Mississippi college students, with few exceptions, to provide proof that they have received two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. Students who are involved in health education programs must also show proof of the hepatitis B vaccine. International students must also show they have been screened for tuberculosis in the United States before the first day of class.
Mississippi Today also asked Blanton about a report in The Oxford Eagle that said, “The decision was made by the Institutions of Higher Learning to not require students at any of its eight universities to receive the vaccination.”
“That is not correct,” Blanton wrote. “The Board has not taken action to amend its vaccination policy.”
Mississippi Today first reported in June that IHL’s immunization policy does not bar the public universities from requiring students to get the COVID vaccine. But university officials continue to say they can’t legally require the vaccine.
At a meeting of University of Mississippi’s vaccine task force last week, Noel Wilkin, the provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, said that IHL must permit any vaccine mandates. His reasoning was based on “reading of the regulations and historical practice,” Joshua Sharp, a professor of pharmacology at UM and a member of the vaccine task force, told Mississippi Today.
Mississippi Today asked MSU and UM whether they intend to require the COVID-19 vaccine, given IHL’s statements that they are not barred from doing so.
Sid Salter, MSU’s director of public affairs, said the university arrived at its interpretation by looking at “the policies that have existed before COVID, and we looked at the policies that have been approved since COVID.”
“We also have consistently monitored federal and state public health guidance, and we have maintained a vigilant monitoring of local conditions,” he added. “But our legal team and our administration does not interpret the latitude you suggest that we have in the same way that you do.”
Salter would not say which policies MSU looked at specifically, responding only that the university has “spoken to these issues to the extent that we’re going to speak to them.”
Lisa Stone, UM’s strategic communications director, told Mississippi Today via email that, “While the university urges everyone who is eligible to get vaccinated, the Oxford and regional campuses of the University of Mississippi do not currently require the COVID-19 vaccine for employment or enrollment.”
Classes start this week at Alcorn State University, Delta State University, Mississippi State University, Mississippi University for Women, and Mississippi Valley State University.
As the new school year begins and the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic rips through Mississippi, many teachers are concerned about how schools are handling the pandemic and feel the need for comprehensive mandates at the state level.
“I am just kind of confused about the whole situation (compared to last year),” said Max Vanlandingham, a teacher at Northwest Rankin High School. “More people are coming back positive, and we’re taking fewer precautions.”
When Rankin County began school on Aug. 6, masks were optional. When discussing that policy on the second day of school, Vanlandingham said, “I would like to think that Rankin County would reverse their stance if things continue to get worse. I have faith that they will.”
Within the hour, Rankin County School District announced a mask mandate through Aug. 25.
Gov. Tate Reeves has said repeatedly he has no intention of enacting a statewide mask mandate, or a mask mandate for schools, leaving individual school districts to make these mask decisions on their own. Several Mississippi districts still have not implemented a mask mandate, even after medical and education groups have called for them. The result is inconsistent policies that may not be protecting children or the educators serving them.
And educators are back in classrooms as more children than ever are becoming infected with the virus. Across the nation, reports of children becoming seriously ill or dying are rolling in. Just last week, a Mississippi eighth grader died just days after testing positive for COVID.
At least five children have died of COVID-19 over the course of the pandemic in Mississippi, according to Mississippi State Department of Health officials.
“We’re going to lose more kids,” said State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs. “It’s just going to happen.”
Hannah Gadd Ardrey, a teacher at Lafayette High School and Mississippi’s 2019-20 teacher of the year, said it has felt like everyone is rushing to get prepared the last few weeks. “We’re just trying to stay afloat because things change every day, so we’re just doing the best we can to keep up with those changes.”
When Mississippi Today spoke with Gadd Ardrey, the Lafayette County School District had an optional masking policy. Teachers could individually enforce a masking policy in their classroom. Later that afternoon, Lafayette County implemented a mask mandate on buses and for all students and staff at the high school through Aug. 20.
“I’m pretty much the same amount of worried that I was last year because the subject that I teach — choir — is kind of a superspreader. I am taking responsibility for my students and myself in my classroom, making sure that we distance and mask… I’m worried about students being safe and being healthy, but as long as they are in my classroom, they are going to get both of those.”
Gadd Ardrey said as of Aug. 11, 25% of her largest class was out on quarantine.
“Teachers are doing their best. Students are doing their best. Administrators are doing their best,” Gadd Ardrey said. “This is just the beginning. Even though we’ve been dealing with COVID for 18 months, it still feels like we’re at the beginning of a very long road.”
So far, at least 1,338 students, staff and teachers have tested positive for the virus and 4,817 are in quarantine as of Aug. 6, according to the state Department of Health. For reference, in the first week MSDH reported data in August 2020, schools reported just 897 positive cases.
These figures have reignited concern among teachers about having to use personal or medical leave days if they are required to quarantine. The federal government had initially required schools to provide teachers with up to 10 quarantine days, but that protection expired. Now, districts have the option to provide teachers with paid administrative leave as long as the emergency order remains in place.
So far, Mississippi Today has not learned of any districts that are currently offering that administrative leave.
“I just feel like if you’re vaccinated and you’re wearing your mask and you’re doing the precautions, your pay shouldn’t get docked for something that is completely out of your control,” said Cagney Weaver, a teacher at Biloxi Upper Elementary. “I think that’s something that I think our governor really needs to step in and do something about.”
Weaver pointed out that the majority of the teachers in our state are female, and statistically a woman is more likely to stay home with sick children. She emphasized that teachers are even more likely to need quarantine days, particularly as the delta variant is more infectious for children.
In DeSoto County, Megan Jordan of Chickasaw Elementary ended up using all 10 of her quarantine days last school year despite never having COVID-19, just waiting on her results.
“We’ve been here four days, and we’ve already had three teachers and one teacher’s assistant out, just in the second grade,” Jordan said. “At this rate, they’re going to run out of sick days before the end of the first nine weeks.”
Jordan said the fact that her students are not old enough to get vaccinated is a point of anxiety. Her school has already switched to having staff meetings virtually and made “Meet the Teacher Night” a virtual event. She said around 10% of the students in her school are wearing masks regularly.
Weaver feels that things are going well in Biloxi since they started the year with a mask mandate, a variety of safety measures are in place, and the district is organizing vaccine drives. However, she understands that they cannot control what happens outside of school, saying “it’s definitely not an if, it’s definitely a when” in terms of students testing positive.
“I really think a mask mandate would help slow the spread and keep school functioning normally,” Weaver said. “We have children in the ICU now. The game has changed, and I wish people would step up their game a little bit.”
I’ve parked in Garage B dozens of times over the years. Never in my lifetime did I think I’d see it used as a field hospital. This all seems so tragic and so avoidable. If you haven’t gotten your vaccine, please do. It’s safe, free and will help you avoid reserved parking.
Last Saturday morning, Alvin Chambliss waited on an empty sidewalk in front of the Masonic Lodge on J.R. Lynch Street. It was quarter past nine, and the march he had spent a month organizing was supposed to have started fifteen minutes ago. But aside from Chambliss and his co-organizer, former Mississippi state lawmaker Kathy Sykes, only one person had shown up. Chambliss was starting to get impatient.
“Fired up, ready to go,” he said into a megaphone to no one in particular.
Alvin Chambliss, who litigated the landmark Ayers v. Fordice, halfway through his march to Smith Park in downtown Jackson on Saturday, Aug. 14.
Chambliss, a civil rights attorney, is best known for his role litigating Ayers v. Fordice, the landmark class-action lawsuit that alleged Mississippi had violated the Fourteenth Amendment by failing to adequately fund its three public Historically Black colleges and universities. Chambliss helped bring the case in 1975 on behalf of the father of a student at Jackson State University. Chambliss fought the case for nearly 30 years — to his professional and financial detriment — until 2002, when it was settled, over his objections, to the tune of $503 million.
Every year since, the Legislature and the Institutions of Higher Learning have doled out a portion of that money to JSU, Alcorn State University and Mississippi Valley State University. But that is set to end next year. And Chambliss is worried his worst fears about the settlement are being realized: For instance, the IHL board was supposed to raise $35 million for a private endowment for the HBCUs by 2009 as part of the settlement. As of this year, the board has raised just $1 million.
At 77 years old, Chambliss wants to carry on fighting, but he knows his time is running out. So he organized the march from JSU to Smith Park on Saturday as a clarion call to students at Mississippi’s HBCUs so that they could carry on his legacy.
“This is the beginning of the end for me in terms of passing the torch to the young people,” he told Mississippi Today.
But by 9:30 a.m., just one student had shown up: Jordan Jefferson, a 23-year-old JSU graduate. Now a master’s student of public policy at Harvard, Jefferson said it was important for him to march to hold legislators accountable for equal funding. He’s not the only student who feels that way, but as for why his fellow graduates hadn’t shown up, Jefferson said he thinks there is a lack of communication between Chambliss’s generation and his own.
“Both sides are at fault,” he said. “Baby-boomers are hyper-aggressive, and Gen Zers are too lackadaisical. There needs to be a middle-ground so the wave can be passed.”
A couple minutes later, Sykes and Jefferson looked around for Chambliss. He had started walking without warning and was already a few blocks away.
The march to Smith Park took forty-five minutes. A dozen people, most of whom were scheduled to speak, greeted Chambliss and Jefferson with ice-cold water.
Chambliss’s anxiety over the generational gap is about more than tactics or sensibilities. In order to relitigate the Ayers case, Chambliss and Sykes need current students at Mississippi’s HBCUs to serve as plaintiffs in order to have standing to sue.
“This has to be a student-driven movement if it wants sustainability,” Chambliss said.
And Chambliss is not alone in his fear that the next generation does not value HBCUs like he did. The first speaker, Reverend Rims Barber, a white man who had come to Mississippi during Freedom Summer, asked God to give the next generation the courage to continue the struggle. Clenora Hudson-Weems, a scholar who coined the term “Africana womanism,” talked about the importance of keeping HCBUs’ original names so their legacy is not lost. Jefferson, the Harvard student, talked about the need to diversify tactics.
“What we’re doing is not working,” Jefferson said.
Bill Chandler, from the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance, spoke about how JSU and Alcorn State admitted undocumented students when no other universities in Mississippi would. “This is an important struggle not only for Black students but Latinos and other immigrants who have been denied entry to the other universities,” he said. “As they say—si se puede.”
Chambliss’s daughter, Alvenia, was one of the last people to speak. She talked about experiencing the systemic inequities that her dad spent decades fighting. After graduating from Florida A&M in 2002, the same year the Ayers case was settled, Alvenia wanted to study medicine. But despite having high grades, none of the medical schools she applied to in the U.S. would admit her. She ended up going to school in the Caribbean.
Her father’s struggle, she said, helped her realize that not getting into medical school in the U.S. was not her personal failure, but a systemic one. She knows the value of her dad’s wisdom, as well as the origin of his anxiety.
“All I see is these intellectual, beautiful people who have passed down so many riches, and they’re dying off without the ability to tell us how important this very moment is,” she had said.
She just wishes they’d have a little more faith in her generation.
“They’re so afraid to let the torch go,” she said.
Speaker of the House Philip Gunn, who often equates his public policy decisions with his religious beliefs, has turned to the Bible to urge Mississippians to take the COVID-19 vaccination.
In a social media post, the Republican House speaker, who had the coronavirus in the summer of 2020, said Mississippians should get vaccinated not only to protect themselves, but also to protect their neighbors. Gunn turned to the scripture where Jesus urged people “to love thy neighbor as thyself.”
He said getting the vaccine was the same as people stepping up during World War II to help the country, or in more recent times after Hurricane Katrina or after the countless tornadoes that have struck the state.
“We have a history of putting others first before ourselves, and I think that same attitude needs to come to the forefront now,” Gunn said. “Here we are in a time of tough need and time of crisis. I would argue we should put each other first…
“We live in a community,” Gunn continued. “We care about our neighbors and our friends, and we do things for their best interest. We are living out the second great command that God gave us. So, with that in mind I would make an appeal to you: The best thing you can do to help your neighbors and friends and help our community and our state right now is to get the vaccine. It is the best tool that we have to fight the virus. I would urge each of us to get the vaccine.”
Gunn used similar language from the Bible when he became the most prominent Republican in statewide office to advocate for changing the Mississippi flag to remove the Confederate battle emblem from its design. He led that effort last year in the Mississippi Legislature.
Mississippi has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country and a surging number of COVID-19 cases, placing an historic strain on the state’s health care system.
An eighth grader in Smith County passed away over the weekend after being diagnosed with COVID-19 — just days after parents and officials in the county pleaded for stronger virus protections as children went back into classrooms for the fall semester.
Thirteen-year-old Mkayla Robinson’s death, first reported by the Smith County Reformer and Mississippi Free Press, came days after she tested positive for COVID-19. Robinson’s cousin, Pastor Ronald Wilbon, spoke passionately in front of Raleigh High School in Smith County on Sunday morning.
“We’re two weeks into school, and we already have babies dying,” Wilbon told Mississippi Today in an interview on Monday.
“This new delta (variant) is attacking babies, and we can see that is true. We can see that is very true,” Wilbon said to the crowd Sunday morning. “ … We’re all hurting this morning. We’re here on behalf of the transition of a child — a child that was right here attending class in this school last week.”
Wilbon’s comments echo those of the state’s top health experts in recent days and come as many of the state’s school districts have not issued mask mandates, despite the Mississippi Department of Health and Centers for Disease Control’s guidance that calls for universal mask-wearing in schools. State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs spoke candidly with a group of business leaders on the Mississippi Gulf Coast during a Zoom call last week.
“We’re going to lose more kids,” Dobbs said. “It’s just going to happen.”
Fourchildren, not including Robinson, have died of COVID-19 over the course of the pandemic in Mississippi, according to Mississippi State Department of Health officials. The most recent death occurred over the summer during the surge of the delta variant.
While Dobbs said many children get the virus and recover well, some have terrible outcomes. One top pediatrician in the state said as many as 15 to 20% of children who get the virus have long-term effects such as fatigue and difficulty breathing. On Monday, there were 22 children hospitalized at Children’s Hospital of Mississippi with the virus.
Dobbs pleaded with people to stop minimizing the virus and its toll on Mississippians.
“If your kid is that one kid, it’s 100% a tragedy for you,” he said. “I want people not to minimize the tragic situation we find ourselves in.”
Robinson’s death comes at a time when many prominent organizations have called on Gov. Tate Reeves to issue a statewide schools mask mandate. Those organizations include the Mississippi State Medical Association, the Mississippi chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Mississippi Association of Educators. Reeves has said he has no intention of issuing such a mandate and has left the decision up to individual school districts.
On Aug. 6, Smith County schools began the year with no mask requirement for students and staff. By Aug. 10, several days before Robinson died, masks were required in schools. On Friday, the district of about 2,400 students reported 82 COVID-19 cases and more than 400 quarantined staff and children.
Smith County Superintendent Nick Hillman did not respond to requests for comment from Mississippi Today Sunday and Monday.
In Smith County, just 22% of the residents are fully vaccinated compared to 36% statewide.
In the days and weeks leading up to school beginning, some parents and medical professionals were sounding the alarm to try and get the schools to implement all possible precautions.
Amber Grayson, a nurse and the parent of a third grader at Raleigh Elementary, sent some school board members videos of her child wheezing and undergoing a nebulizer treatment when she had been diagnosed with COVID-19 in July.
“I said look at this, you can use this as a reference. My child tested positive in July, and we also lost my father-in-law at the end of January from COVID,” said Grayson, who was asking school officials repeatedly to require students and teachers to wear masks.
When the new school year started and masks weren’t required, she debated whether to send her daughter back. And now, after hearing of Robinson’s death, she’s reconsidering again.
“I do not want to send my kid to school — I would much rather do virtual,” she said.
Jay Arrington, a school board member, said he did not receive the videos from Grayson and that he heard from far more parents who were against a mask mandate than parents who were for one. He said at one of the board meetings there were at least 15 parents there speaking out against any mandate and only one in favor of a mandate.
Arrington said he personally was in favor of making masks option but was open to hearing others’ thoughts – but those thoughts were overwhelmingly in favor of keeping masks optional. He said he only received one call from a bus driver asking the board mandate masks on school buses.
The Mississippi Department of Education last month required schools to resume in-person learning as the primary mode of instruction this year. Local school boards develop their own criteria for students who learn virtually.
The predicament is not unique to Smith County school officials and parents. School districts across the state are wrestling with what COVID-19 protocols to implement as Gov. Tate Reeves has repeatedly said he will not be issuing any statewide mandates like he did last year.
Teachers and pediatricians pleaded with Reeves last week to issue a mask mandate in the schools, but Reeves said Friday in his first COVID-19 press conference in months he has no intention of doing so.
The day before school started in Smith County School District, school board member Bill Hardin posted on Facebook that he would be calling an emergency meeting of the board to try and pass a mask requirement. On Monday, Aug. 16, the district posted its site that it would be offering free vaccinations at each school.
“I personally am not willing to risk the first child to this virus if we could have done something to try and prevent it,” Bill Hardin wrote. The post garnered “thank you” comments along with several expressing anti-mask sentiments.
“So nice to live in a free world until some elected official tells you, you have no choice at freedom,” one commenter wrote.
Hardin in his post also criticized the lack of guidance from state leaders to schools. The Mississippi Department of Education disseminates state Department of Health information to school districts, but department officials said the governor and MSDH have authority over mask mandates, vaccinations and COVID-19 protocols.
“The only real guidance the district has received has come from the Mississippi Department of Health. The governor has delegated this decision to each of the districts,” he continued. “I do not know MDE’s role in this pandemic. Folks, Smith County is on our own!”
Hardin ended his post on a personal note.
“I believe that one day I will have to answer to my maker for many decisions I’ve made,” he wrote. “I don’t think he will question me on this one.”
