“Sheriff Fulco was a fearless advocate of the Sheriff’s Department and the citizens that he served. A career law enforcement officer, Sheriff Fulco made many friends and touched many lives,” the YCSD said in the Facebook post. The post did not include whether Fulco was vaccinated.
Various law enforcement agencies in North Mississippi will honor Fulco Tuesday night in a “sea of blue” as they escort his body from Baptist DeSoto Hospital in Southaven to the Seven Oaks Funeral Home in Water Valley.
Lawmakers plan to hold two days of hearings on eliminating or cutting Mississippi’s individual income tax on Aug. 25 and 26.
The hearings will be before a joint select committee of eight senators and eight House members, selected by the lieutenant governor and speaker, Senate Finance Chairman Josh Harkins said on Tuesday. Harkins said the hearings will likely include testimony from state and national tax experts, agency leaders and business people, but its itinerary hasn’t been finalized.
The hearings are in response to House Speaker Philip Gunn’s push to eliminate the state’s individual income tax, cut taxes on groceries in half and increase sales and other taxes to make up the lost revenue. The House in this year’s legislative session passed Gunn’s plan, but the Senate killed it without a vote, saying the plan needed more vetting and vowing to study it over the summer and fall.
Recently, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said, “The Senate will hold hearings … on comprehensive tax reform, and we have invited the House to join us.” While he has stopped short of agreeing that individual income taxes can be eliminated, Hosemann has said recently he expects at least a cut in income taxes, with state revenues coming in at a record click recently.
Gunn’s plan has raised concern from numerous interests. Advocates for poor and moderate income Mississippians and retirees fear it would shift more of the state’s tax burden on them. Big business interests such as manufacturers and some small business groups fear the sales tax increases in the plan would increase their “input” costs drastically down their supply chains.
Some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle fear the major change in tax structure — individual income taxes generate about $1.8 billion a year, or 32% of the state’s revenue — would tank the state budget.
While Gunn has had trouble getting business and interest groups to sign on with his plan, he said last week that it has been warmly received by many people as he’s traveled the state talking with civic and business groups in recent months. Gunn said the nine states with no income tax, including Florida, Tennessee and Texas, are economically thriving and attracting more people, unlike Mississippi, one of just three states to lose population over the last decade.
No state has ever phased out an individual income tax. Alaska, the only state to eliminate an existing income tax, did so in one fell swoop.
Harkins agreed with Hosemann’s assessment that at least an income tax cut is in the offing next year. But he said eliminating income taxes or a major overhaul of tax structure will take much deliberation and study.
“You’ve got one chance to do this right, and I want to make sure that we are really looking for everything, dotting our Is and crossing our Ts,” Harkins said. “There’s a reason no other state has done this, because it’s hard to do it, but I know other states are in the process of trying … My goal with these hearings is to provide a lot of information — how the money comes i n, from what sources, how much, what are some of the diversions and tax credit exemptions … What are the pitfalls? Proceeding with caution is how I would describe this.
Hosemann also recently said, “All of the hearings will be webcasted because we want you to be a part of the process. It is your money.”
As the COVID-19 delta variant has given Mississippi the third highest infection rate in the nation, and the state’s hospitals remain completely overwhelmed with patients, there is at least one bright spot: The state’s vaccination rate has shot up for four straight weeks, increasing 107% over the past month.
Though Mississippi is no longer last in the nation for the share of its population that has been vaccinated, it still trails 48 other states. Just 35% of Mississippians have been fully vaccinated, according to data compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Medical experts are pleading with Mississippians to get vaccinated as the state’s hospital system has reached its full capacity to care for COVID-19 patients — a vast majority of them unvaccinated. And things inside hospitals are becoming more dire than ever.
As of Sunday, there were 1,349 Mississippians hospitalized with COVID-19, with 345 in ICUs and 205 on ventilators. On Monday, none of the 827 adult ICU beds in Mississippi were available.
Across the nation, this latest stage of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be one of the unvaccinated, and the numbers bear that out. Between July 13 and August 9 in Mississippi, 97% of COVID-19 cases, 89% of hospitalizations and 85% of deaths were among the unvaccinated, according to health department data.
And there is no end to this wave in sight. The Mississippi State Department of Health reported 3,488 new cases on Tuesday, the highest single-day caseload the state has seen throughout the pandemic. Physicians say these high daily case numbers will translate to record hospitalizations in coming weeks.
This strain on the healthcare system is not sustainable, health care experts warn, and has created an environment where, as of Monday, more than 200 COVID-19 patients were receiving care in emergency room settings when they should be in an ICU. This not only limits the ability of healthcare workers to effectively care for these patients, but it also causes delays in the time-sensitive care that non-COVID patients need.
Dr. Alan Jones, associate vice chancellor for clinical affairs and COVID-19 clinical response leader at University of Mississippi Medical Center, has warned that UMMC has not had to turn away any patients yet, but that breaking point is approaching.
“We are not infinite resources,” Jones said. “We can break. We can have to close… And I think we’re rapidly headed that direction.”
The exhaustion and anger of healthcare workers is bubbling over in a myriad of ways as they deal with a system stretched to the brink by preventable infections and deaths. State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs tweeted Tuesday morning that he has begun listening to the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers in the morning, “a long standing indication of irrepressible frustration” for him.
In the absence of substantial vaccine encouragement from political leaders like Gov. Tate Reeves, other prominent Mississippi figures are stepping up.
Archie Manning, the Mississippi native and patriarch of the Manning football family, partnered with the Delta Health Alliance to encourage Mississippians to get vaccinated.
“We know the vaccine works, but only if you get it,” Manning said in a promotional video. “It’s easy and it works. Please get vaccinated, my friends, and stay healthy.”
On Sunday, Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin announced that the entire football program, including players, coaches and staff, had been fully vaccinated. No other college or NFL football team has gotten all of their players vaccinated. Following the announcement, Kiffin called the decision to not get vaccinated “irresponsible.”
As scientists continue to collect data on the newest variant that is spreading rapidly, medical experts continue to reiterate that vaccination remains the best protection against contracting the delta variant. The nation’s leading medical researchers agree that vaccines are nearly as effective against the delta variant as the original strain, greatly minimizing the chance of infection and nearly eliminating the risks of developing a serious illness.
Studies suggest, however, that being fully vaccinated is the only adequate protection against the delta variant, as a single shot of either of the two-dose mRNA vaccines provides only weak protection against infection.
Of the 2,510 Mississippians who died of COVID-19 between Jan. 1 and Aug. 4 of this year, just 51 were fully vaccinated.
CLEVELAND — Schools across the state are beginning a new school year this month with in-person classes. With no statewide mask mandate from the governor, districts are deciding for themselves what COVID precautions to put in place. In the Cleveland School District, masks are required. Mississippi Today photojournalist Vickie King visited the district on the first day of school.
Photo Captions:
Pearman Elementary School students masked up and excited for class on the first day back to school Monday, Aug. 9, 2021.
Yuri James, 12, listens intently as his history teacher Bill Hatcher greets students during the first day of school at Cleveland Central Middle School.
Cleveland School District students attended their first day back to class. Masks were required for students and staffers.
Pearman Elementary School Principal Precious Redmond greets students and welcomes them back on their first day.
Students and staffers wear masks on the first day of school in the Cleveland School District.
Cleveland Central High School students on their first day back to school,
Cleveland School District Superintendent Otha Belcher welcomes Pearman Elementary 5th grade students on their first day back to class
Cleveland Central High Schoolers start their first day back to school with stretching and mild exercise.
Photo Captions:
Cleveland School District students returned to school, Monday, Aug. 9, 2021. Students and staff are required to wear masks.
Chundra Grisby and students in her Cyber Foundations II class on the first day of school at Cleveland Central Middle School.
Cleveland Central High School teacher Lynn Rush greets her students on their first day back to school.
Cleveland School District students change classes on the first day back to school.
Math teacher Krupa Kaneria and students on the first day back to school at Cleveland Central Middle School,
Every intensive care unit bed in Mississippi is full, and hospital leaders are begging — praying — for relief. Thousands of Mississippi students are going back to class without masks, and several schools have had to shut down after immediate COVID-19 outbreaks. Government leaders fear the effects if a critical state of emergency order expires as scheduled next week.
Nearly everyone in the state — medical, government and education leaders and voters on the political right and left — is asking: Where is our governor?
Gov. Tate Reeves is holed up most days at the Governor’s Mansion, according to people close to the governor. Reeves, who has defiantly rejected issuing any new statewide orders, has isolated himself from many of his closest advisers in recent weeks. He’s holding no press conferences, decidedly not making himself available to the public as he did earlier in the pandemic. Right now, as the crisis reaches its biggest inflection point, he’s out of state at a Republican Governors Association candidate conference.
His penthouse Sillers Building office, where governors traditionally work, has been rarely used since he took office in 2020. And as the crisis mounts, Reeves is hemorrhaging staff. Since Mississippi Today reported in late June that Reeves has lost four senior staffers and several policy staff since he took office in 2020, four additional staffers have left his office.
Liz Welch, his interim chief of staff and well-regarded state government veteran, is splitting duties, working mostly from the Woolfolk Building as she continues to run the Department of Finance and Administration. Prominent officials who are desperately trying to get in touch with Reeves are reaching out to David Maron, the governor’s chief counsel and deputy chief of staff who had never previously worked in state government.
When asked who Reeves has been taking advice from in recent weeks, the name that several people close to the governor brought up most consistently is Brad Todd, a political consultant who works in suburban Washington, D.C. Todd, a nationally-known politico who helped run the campaigns of former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri and U.S. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, has managed Reeves’ campaigns dating back to his treasurer’s race in 2003.
The best explanation that anyone can come up with for Reeves’ continued absence during the crisis and why he’s listening closely to Todd’s counsel: politics. Reeves is receiving relentless criticism from seemingly every quarter in Mississippi. He’s flip-flopped many times depending on the politics of the moment, and nothing he does or says seems to land with any base or constituency.
The wunderkind who has quickly risen the ranks because of his ability to read the state’s political winds is seeing that those winds are swirling. So, too, is he during the worst days of this crisis.
Reeves’ previous public statements about the pandemic are so strikingly different from his statements today that they could be coming from a different politician.
A year ago, as schools were going back into session and a second COVID-19 wave was growing, Reeves issued statewide mask mandates, saying masks were “important not only to protect oneself, but also to avoid unknowingly harming our fellow Mississippians through asymptomatic community transmission of COVID-19” and “the key to reducing transmission of the virus.”
The past two weeks, though, as the politics of mask-wearing and other COVID-19 orders are as volatile as ever, Reeves has capitulated. He’s gone out of his way to cast doubt on the recommendations of medical professionals in public forums and sow distrust in policies he previously enacted himself.
“The change in the CDC’s mask guidance is foolish and harmful and it reeks of political panic to appear that they are in control,” Reeves said during his speech at the Neshoba County Fair in late July. “It has nothing to do with rational science … In Mississippi, we believe in freedom.”
A year ago, Reeves consistently defended his COVID-19 policies with talk of keeping the state’s hospital system above water during peaks of virus cases.
“Our goal in Mississippi has never been to completely eradicate the virus. It has never been to completely eliminate the virus, because we do not believe — or at least I don’t — that that’s a realistic goal,” Reeves said in October 2020. “Our goal has always been to protect the integrity of our healthcare system.”
Today, the Mississippi healthcare system Reeves claimed he wanted to protect a year ago is failing because of the state’s debilitating COVID caseload, and he has barricaded himself in the Mansion and has made little contact with the public.
Health care experts say the vaccine is the quickest, most effective way to defeat COVID-19 and save lives. Reeves, however, has worked hard to have vaccine policy both ways. He has seen and heard the disagreement and the conspiracy theories, and, knowing much of it is being spawned on his side of the political aisle, has avoided decisiveness.
“It was recently said nationally that the delta variant was becoming a ‘pandemic of the unvaccinated,’” Reeves posted to social media on Monday. “The most recent data from Mississippi suggest the same. Talk to your doctor. Assess the risk. Do the right thing for you. Do the right thing for your family.”
The response to his carefully-worded post shows how divided Mississippians are: Many people panned Reeves for not doing enough to encourage mass vaccination, and others criticized him for being too hands-on and preaching to them. And if politics are dictating Reeves’ actions (or inactions) right now, it’s important to highlight recent reporting that Reeves could have at least one formidable 2023 challenger for governor in Republican Speaker of the House Philip Gunn.
So many Mississippians are scared, tired and as divided as ever, and are now at the precipice of what appears to be another few weeks of difficult changes. They’ve lost friends and family members, personal time and life experiences, and it’s likely they’ll lose even more.
In other states, including neighbors run by Republicans, governors are leading. They’re facing the tough politics head-on and providing a steady hand and a clear message: Get the vaccine, wear masks in public, look out for your neighbors. By going underground the past few weeks, Reeves has left a vacuum of leadership that stands to greatly increase the likelihood that the virus will harm many more Mississippians and continue to overload the state’s hospitals.
As criticism of Reeves grows during this phase of the pandemic, fewer people are seemingly coming to the governor’s defense. Alan Lange, a conservative commentator and longtime close political ally of Reeves, recently took to Twitter to critique Sun Herald reporter Anita Lee’s analysis about the governor’s recent absence from the public sphere.
Lange’s tweet, published five days ago, has just one “like” — from the governor’s trusted political adviser Brad Todd.
Imagine you are a football coach. You have a quarterback, both accurate and resourceful. He gets the job done. He’s a winner. You have a wide receiver who runs a 4.3 40-yard dash and can catch everything thrown anywhere near him. But, despite defeat after defeat, you steadfastly refuse to play either.
Your team keeps losing. The scores are lopsided. You are in last place in your conference. Every week, the statistics are frightful. You are in 49th place in a 50-team division, but you stubbornly stay the course, keep your best weapons on the bench, and keep on losing.
Yes, you are right, that scenario sounds inconceivable. What coach in his right mind would refuse to use all the weapons available to win?
Rick Cleveland
Dr. Thomas Dobbs, this state’s chief health officer, must feel sometimes like he’s watching that football team play.
Mississippi ranks 49th of 50 states in percentage of its citizenry fully vaccinated. The pandemic is raging. The delta variant of COVID-19 is winning. People are dying. ICU units are filled. Emergency rooms can’t handle the numbers of really sick folks. We have more deathly ill people than we have medical staffing to care for them. Doctors and nurses must feel like quarterbacks facing an all-out blitz with no offensive line. Schools are shutting down classes before they can even open.
Yes, and on a much less important note, the upcoming football season is threatened. Already some high school teams have stopped practicing because too many players have COVID. The Oak Grove football team, the defending Mississippi Class 6A champions, has suspended preseason practices because of a COVID outbreak. The way this pandemic is raging, the colleges might not be that far behind.
In a one-on-one interview last week, I asked Dobbs about all this. Where is all this headed?
“It’s really up to us,” Dobbs answered. “We have the tools to beat this, but we just are not using them. In some ways, we are worse off than we were this time last year.”
Listen to him: We have the tools. We just aren’t using them. Nearly two-thirds of our people have not been vaccinated. My guess is that a lower percentage are wearing masks in public.
The sports analogies are endless. Would you play football without a helmet and face mask? Would you play shortstop without a glove? Would you play golf with wooden-shafted clubs against a field playing with modern technology?
Dobbs, a high school tennis All American and a centerfielder for his Emory University baseball team, must feel a coach giving a pep talk to a team that won’t listen.
“We need to get people vaccinated, especially with school starting,” he said. “These shots are extremely safe. They do not cause problems. They are spectacularly effective for teens with strong immune systems.”
Yes, there are vaccinated people who do get COVID. But Dobbs quickly will tell you those cases are relatively infrequent and that vaccinated folks who do come down with the virus do not become nearly as sick as those who are not vaccinated.
I asked Dobbs what he would do if he were a football coach preparing his team for the upcoming season.
“I would strongly urge everyone associated with the team — players, managers, coaches, everybody — to get vaccinated,” he said. “Otherwise, we’re going to see tons of outbreaks, even with people wearing masks. This delta variant scares me. It spreads so much faster… It is spreading across Mississippi like a tsunami.”
Dobbs said that large crowds attending games in open air stadiums are far from his biggest concern.
“I am not nearly as worried about gatherings in outdoor spaces with good air circulation,” he said. “I am much more concerned with the teams and bands traveling to the games in a bus that doesn’t have good air circulation. I am worried about classrooms. I know we have to educate our kids, but until we get this under control, we just can’t do it like we did it before.”
Bottom line: Much more than the upcoming football season is at stake here. We are in a life and death situation with this delta variant, and people are dying every day.
We have the tools to win this fight. Why in the world would we not use them?
There are success stories. Ole Miss reportedly has reached 100% vaccination rate within its football program. Sources tell me Mississippi State and Southern Miss are not far behind. That’s what it’s going to take — for football, and our lives, to return to normal.
Four days after Gov. Tate Reeves authorized a state takeover of the Holmes County Consolidated School District and removed the current superintendent and school board, the new state-appointed superintendent is not yet in the district.
Students returned to school for the first time in over a year on Thursday, the day the emergency was declared by the governor and the school district was abolished per the recommendation of the State Board of Education, which now serves as the local school board.
Since then, there has effectively been no one running the day-to-day operations of the district.
Washington Cole, the deputy state superintendent and chief of staff, came to the district Monday afternoon to deliver communications to former officials and brief current staff.
“There’s a process to abolish the district,” Cook said when asked why a Mississippi Department of Education official only arrived Monday afternoon.
Jennifer Wilson, the new interim superintendent and former leader of Greenwood schools, will be in the district Tuesday, said Cook.
A COVID-19 outbreak occurred at the district middle school and several high school students got in a fight Monday morning, but administrators have received no communication from the state education department or the newly appointed interim superintendent Jennifer Wilson on how to proceed, according to former board president Louise Winters.
Winters questioned why no state officials were immediately present — particularly at the start of a new school year during the COVID-19 pandemic — if such an emergency existed in the district.
Holmes County Sheriff Willie March confirmed that a fight broke out Monday morning at the high school between around seven students. He said more deputies from his office will be at the school this afternoon out of precaution.
Clarence Webster, an attorney for the former superintendent and school board members, said his clients were instructed not to intervene during the problems that arose on Monday.
“Today, counsel received notice that Dr. (Debra) Powell (the former superintendent) is to take no further action vis-a-vis HCCSD,” Webster told Mississippi Today. “According to the State Board of Education’s counsel, the interim superintendent will be in the district for the first time in her official capacity Tuesday.”
The takeover of the district came following a nearly 400-page audit from the Mississippi Department of Education that found the district in violation of 81% of accreditation standards. The allegations include a dysfunctional school board and administration, improper spending, inaccurate record keeping and unlicensed teachers in the classroom.
Two hearings took place last week in front of the Commission on School Accreditation and the State Board of Education. Both bodies voted unanimously to recommend the governor pave the way for the state to take over the district as a result of allegations of violations of state and federal law in addition to state accreditation standards and rampant financial problems.
The district’s own auditor in 2019 essentially declared the district unable to be audited because of missing and inaccurate record keeping. The state auditor’s office in 2020 released its own report revealing widespread problems in the district under its former superintendent James Henderson. Henderson resigned shortly before the report was released.
The school board hired Debra Powell to lead the district around the same time. Powell, Winters and other district officials at the hearings last week protested against a state takeover and maintained they were already working to fix the district’s many problems.
The governor’s declaration marks the 21st time the state has taken over a school district since 1997.
On Aug. 4 of last year, Gov. Tate Reeves issued a statewide mandate calling for mask-wearing in all school buildings. The executive order called masks “important not only to protect oneself, but also to avoid unknowingly harming our fellow Mississippians through asymptomatic community transmission of COVID-19” and “the key to reducing transmission of the virus.”
But this year, as mask-wearing in schools has become a hot-button political issue, the governor has changed his tune dramatically. He has described guidance from the Centers for Disease Control calling for everyone to wear masks amid the surge of the delta variant, particularly in under-vaccinated states like Mississippi, “foolish and harmful” and “not rational science.”
And despite calls for masks in schools from the Mississippi chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Mississippi State Medical Association, and the Mississippi Association of Educators, Reeves has passed the buck this year, leaving the decision up to school districts.
Mississippi hospitals, in one of the least vaccinated states in the nation, are being pushed to the brink dealing with patients who have COVID-19. Emergency rooms and intensive care units are full across the state as the delta variant targets people of all ages, and especially those who are unvaccinated. Many hospital administrators face staff shortages due to fatigue, frustration and fear.
Perhaps most concerning as schools go back into session is that as of Aug. 6, there were 20 children hospitalized with COVID-19 in the state, according to the Mississippi State Department of Health — a trend not seen during earlier spikes of the virus. Three of the 15 at Children’s of Mississippi in Jackson were in the intensive care unit.
Reeves, the only official with the power to enact a statewide mask mandate, has repeatedly stated he will not be issuing another one for schools this year. So as children across the state return to the classroom this month, school districts are developing their own policies as cases skyrocket higher than this time last year.
Pascagoula-Gautier School District Superintendent Wayne Rodolfich said his district became the first on the Gulf Coast to require all students and staff to wear masks in schools when the new year began on Aug. 5.
Rodolfich said while there might have been a lot of noise from community members and parents against a mask requirement, he did not let that affect his decision making.
“With my school board and leadership team and school level administrators, I look at what the safest option for all people will be and base it off that,” he said. He said he looked at numbers from last year and the local COVID-19 infection data, in addition to consulting with medical professionals from Singing River Health System.
In the days following Pascagoula-Gautier’s decision, Ocean Springs, Gulfport, Pass Christian, Biloxi, Hancock County and Long Beach schools all announced a mask mandate, the Sun Herald reported.
However, Harrison County and Jackson County school districts are still making masks optional as of Aug. 6.
Jackson County’s website says unless mandated by law, students and staff members won’t be required to wear masks. It also described receiving the COVID-19 vaccine as a “personal/family choice.”
No school district in Mississippi is requiring vaccines, though a member of the board for the Natchez-Adams School District said the board is considering the possibility of requiring eligible employees to be vaccinated.
Rodolfich, however, said he made a personal visit to all 19 schools in his district before the year began to meet with faculty and staff to encourage anyone who can to get a vaccine. The district will also be holding vaccination drives over the next month.
In the metro area, Jackson Public Schools has said it will require masks in schools since developing its back-to-school plan at the beginning of the summer, and Clinton Public School District recently reversed course and said it will be changing its mask guidance from recommended to required.
The district cited the CDC, state health department and the American Academy of Pediatricians in its decision. It will reassess the requirement by Sept. 10 to determine next steps, a press release stated.
“There is no doubt that our students learn best when inside our classrooms,” said Clinton Superintendent Andy Schoggin, noting that quarantine was a huge challenge last year.
The most recent guidance, however, states that as long as everyone is masked, potentially exposed children or teachers do not have to quarantine and will be able to stay in the classroom.
“Eliminating the need for quarantines in the classroom setting provides a great opportunity to continue to provide the academic and social opportunities our students need and deserve,” Schoggin said.
Rankin and Madison County schools are both still making masks optional, according to their return-to-learning plans.
Three parents in the Rankin County School District told Mississippi Today they have never received any communication from the district encouraging their students or teachers to get vaccinated. Multiple requests for comment from the Rankin County School District spokesperson and superintendent were not returned by Monday.
Madison County School District Superintendent Charlotte Seals wrote in a letter to families that she encouraged parents and children to take advantage of the vaccine if eligible.
In the northern part of the state, Oxford School District Superintendent Bradley Roberson said masks will be required in schools until Aug. 20.
“Unfortunately, in recent days we have learned from some of our district friends from around the state who have already started school that a normal return may not provide us with the best opportunity to keep kids in school,” he said in a video on the district’s website. “Our friends in Lamar County have been forced to transition Oak Grove High School as well as Purvis High School to virtual learning due to school outbreaks after less than 10 days of instruction. Bands from across the state have already been shut down due to outbreaks from band camps.”
Last year, Reeves cited keeping kids in school as the chief reason to implement the mask mandate.
“Here’s the bottom line: We have to balance the very real risk of the virus and the lifelong damage of school closures. To do that, we have to safely provide education for the greatest possible number of children,” Reeves said on Aug. 4, 2020.
Already this month, several public schools have gone back to the classroom and had to quickly halt in-person learning because of COVID outbreaks. The governor reiterated last week that masks are a choice that should be left up to the districts themselves.
"I believe that local school boards, the parents ought to be heard," Reeves told Tupelo-based WTVA last week. "They (school boards) ought to open the floor and give the parents a chance to talk to their school board members because they are the elected officials."
The lack of leadership from Reeves is leaving local politicians in a quandary and increasing the chances that COVID-19 will continue to overload the state’s hospital system.
Take what happened last week in Harrison County — one of Reeves’ political strongholds — where the county school board, overseeing the Mississippi Gulf Coast’s largest school district, was in an impossible situation.
Many Harrison County parents seemed to want the school board to issue a district-wide mask mandate, and others seemed vehemently opposed. Uncertain about what to do, the Harrison County school board opened the floor of their meeting to parents on Aug. 4 — just as Reeves suggested they do.
Tempers flared. Emotions ran high. Conspiracy theories and misinformation were shared in a public forum. By the end of the meeting, the board voted 3-2 to not enact a mask mandate, leaving some attendees cheering and others weeping.
This time last year, Reeves' statewide order gave political cover to local school leaders — and, according to health care professionals, lessened the transmission of the coronavirus.
But with no statewide mandate this year, scenes like in Harrison County are playing out across the state, increasing the likelihood of quicker COVID-19 spread and terrifying many teachers, physicians and parents.
"You literally have our children’s lives in the palm of your hand," Harrison County parent Kristin Stachura Allen said at last week's board meeting. "The variant is affecting our children, and you are failing to protect every single one of them if you don’t put a mandate in place."
Mississippi Today Editor-in-Chief Adam Ganucheau contributed to this report.
