Since the beginning of COVID-19, public schools have felt the strong force of the virus. High schools lost the ability to teach in-person during the 2019 and 2020 school year, provide their students with extracurricular activities, and give their students a real and full high school experience. Now that kids above the age of 12 are now eligible, with 5 to 11 year olds soon to be on that list to receive a vaccine, there is hope that a return to a new normal is on the horizon.
Suki Highers, sociology teacher at Fayetteville High School and Justice of the Peace for Washington County District 11, has experienced COVID-19 firsthand, with her whole family having the virus despite being vaccinated. Highers understands and reinforces the importance of mask wearing at school every day.
“While some students seem to be very conscious about COVID precautions, as a whole, most don’t seem to care,” Highers said. “Every day I have to remind students how to wear a mask appropriately, sometimes multiple times in one class period. It is easy to tell who hasn’t been impacted by COVID in the classroom.”
Fayetteville High School has a mask mandate and quarantine policy, along with Little Rock School District. Little Rock is the second largest school district in the state. Two weeks ago, Rogers and Fort Smith School Districts lifted their mask mandate, although mask wearing is “strongly encouraged.” The largest school district in the state, Springdale School District, ended their mask mandate back in September.
The districts without a mask mandate have comparably larger case numbers per 100 staff and students cumulative totals compared to Fayetteville. From calculations made with November 29 data provided by the Arkansas Department of Health, Springdale had 33.22 student cases per 1,000 cases, Rogers with 36.86, and Fort Smith with 38.88. while Fayetteville had 17.24 student cases per 1,000 and Little Rock with 18.12. Fayetteville and Little Rock’s numbers are almost cut in half compared to school districts without a mask mandate.
The common theme between Springdale, Rogers and Fort Smith is that there is no mask mandate, which can be seen as the cause for higher case numbers.
If the school district does not openly show support for the vaccination of their students, then the students will not care about getting the vaccine or their chance of getting COVID.
Linda Stocker, Science teacher at Fayetteville High School, worries that the schools are not informing their students about the vaccine and its importance to fight COVID-19.
“The school held a vaccine clinic, but no information was disseminated to students about the vaccine prior to the clinic,” Stocker said.
If there is not enough information being spread and taught to students at school or at home, there might not be enough will for them to do it on their own. Resources need to be present at school, a place where students generally have free and equal access to the things they may not have at home.
“Students from families whose first language is not English, or students from families where the guardians or parents are not home due to things like working night shifts,” Stocker said, “Do not have equitable access to vaccine information compared to students who speak English and have parents who are informing them about the vaccine.”
School districts like Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, and Little Rock need to set an example for the smaller school districts that do not have a fraction of the resources compared to larger school districts. Vaccinated student and staff numbers need to go up in order for case numbers to go down.
“I’m not sure cases are as low as what has been reported,” Highers said. “Many students won’t get tested for fear of being quarantined.”
It is a scary thought to think you might have COVID, but getting tested and being quarantined if you are positive is how we stop the spread and prevent cases from rising.
Masks are a simple and effective way to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and that has been the case since the virus first came to the United States. With case numbers and deaths from COVID rising each day, it is disheartening that mask-wearing has lost its importance to some people.
“Our school board has been very COVID conscious, but I believe that the mandate will be lifted this school year if case numbers remain low,” Highers said. “While it would be a relief to stop policing masks, I would worry about bringing it home again.”
Suki Highers – suki.highers@g.fayar.net
Linda Stocker – linda.stocker@g.fayar.net
