HOUSTON COUNTY, Ga. — Tuesday marks the start of the school year for Houston County. Although kids are back in the classroom, some parents are unhappy with the district's approach to COVID-19 – they say everyone needs to mask up.
The district is not requiring or recommending masks. They say they're optional for both students and staff.
State numbers show that Houston County is averaging 62 new positive COVID-19 cases a day over the past week and the Delta variant is on the rise.
Caly Hess, who has two kids, says she's disappointed with the district.
“Forcing all of these children in person into an unsafe environment in a hotspot where it is known, scientifically-proven this thing is killing people and more and more kids are getting sick,” said Hess.
She has one high-schooler who's attending school in person. She decided to keep her preschooler home -- he's not getting schooling at the moment.
“We can't risk him going into the preschool getting sick and being asymptomatic and bringing it to our grandparents. We just can't,” said Hess.
She supports the American Academy of Pediatrics and the CDC's recommendation that everyone should wear masks inside schools regardless of whether they're vaccinated.
Michael Brown, who has four kids in Houston County schools, agrees.
“It's really strange choices that they've made this year because they don't seem to be taking the approach of 'better safe than sorry.' They seem to be taking the approach of, 'Well, we'll just deal with it if there's a problem,'” said Brown.
He says the district should reopen the virtual option for students. The deadline to sign up was in May.
\“'How am I supposed to, as a parent, decide what's OK for my children when I don't know what's going to happen two or three months from now?' And so I'm making a decision in May for August when the Delta variant wasn't that bad, but now it is,” said Brown.
We reached out to the school district for reaction, and they told us they were unable to speak to us Tuesday.