Bleckley school leaders clarify their COVID protocols after message leads to confusion

Bleckley County School District leaders have clarified their COVID-19 protocols after the rules were misinterpreted earlier this week, according to the district superintendent.

The protocols were amended by the school board Tuesday, and included changes for students quarantined due to possible COVID-19 exposure.

“While some may question the reasoning, we actually have seen many students who were supposed to be quarantined walking and riding around town, continuing to socialize, and completely ignoring the quarantine rules,” district superintendent Steve J. Smith said. “We want them in school, but we also want to increase the safety of those around them by requiring them to mask up.

“We agreed that if the number of positive cases within our schools increase dramatically over the next two weeks, our next step is a system-wide mask mandate.”

But the changes led some to assume COVID-positive asymptomatic students were going to be back in classrooms. That’s not the case.

The changes only impact students and staff in quarantine because they were potentially exposed to the coronavirus.

“It all comes down to the word ‘asymptomatic,’ and the way it was used,” Smith said. “We were using the word asymptomatic to mean completely without symptoms and how they are supposed to quarantine after being exposed, but weren’t positive.”

In a unanimous vote on Tuesday, the Bleckley County Board of Education changed school COVID-19 rules to allow quarantined students and staff return to classrooms under the following circumstances:

• They have not had recent positive test and do not have any COVID symptoms
• No one in the household is positive
• They wear a mask while inside any school building and on school buses

However, any student or staff member who is positive for COVID-19 must continue to isolate and may only return after the isolation period.

Vaccine is best defense to COVID

When the fall semester began on Aug. 6, 26 students were COVID-positive. That was down to 30 a week later. But more students are in quarantine after possible exposures, from 68 on the first day of school to 107 last week to 151 on Aug. 17.

“Our community support has been tremendous, and our parents know we value the safety of out students and staff,” Smith said.

The superintendent believes the best defense against COVID-19 is the vaccine, and highly encourages others to make that personal decision.

“53% of our staff members have had at least one shot, I would prefer that to be closer to 100%,” he said.

The board will meet again in two weeks to review the results and modify plans if necessary.

This story was originally published August 19, 2021 at 2:39 PM.