Virus

Discussion of COVID-19’s impact on Tecumseh Public Schools bookended the board of education’s monthly meeting, Monday night, dominating the public comment segment at the start and resurfacing in Superintendent Robert Kinsey’s report at the meeting’s close.

“I truly feel like this is hurting our kids more than it is helping our kids,” Tedda Hogan, parent of two students, said during public comments. “Their grades are dropping, their mental health is different. They have no drive anymore. They’re no longer able to be a normal kid.”

Parent Joey Hadsall asked the school administration to allow parents to take the liability of keeping their kids in school upon themselves.

Fellow parent Rusti Seaton agreed with Hogan and Hadsall, asking that the board place the decision on whether to quarantine students who do not have symptoms of illness back into parents’ hands.

Taking another approach, parent James Kipps said that he believed a Sept. 2 letter the school district sent to parents was inaccurate in citing 63 O.S. § 1-505 as the legal basis for prohibiting students from in-person school attendance due to close contact with someone who is ill with COVID-19.