School Board Member Jennifer Jenkins posted to her Facebook page today, sharing the Brevard Public School Covid-19 Dashboard numbers for today.
“We can no longer ignore what is in front of us and be complicit with ignorance. It is important to remember each case and quarantine on the dashboard is new. That is, they never carry over to the next. We are one week into school. We currently have nearly 5,000 quarantines. We can’t call 911. Our hospitals are overcrowded. Testing sites are seeing delays. We continue to make national news for how bad we are.I t’s time to get over it, do what you are elected to do, and protect our students and staff. I’m losing sleep over these numbers and I’m sick and tired of it. My fellow board members, step up.” (From her Facebook post)
Jenkins along with fellow board member Cheryl McDougall have been pushing for all measures possible to protect the students and staff in the public school system, to include a mask mandate for students in elementary schools. Her proposal did not pass at the last board meeting failing with a vote of 2-3.
Every healthcare professional that presented at the August 10th meetings stated that they believed masks were helpful in preventing the spreading of the disease, and each of the 5 board members also agreed with that assessment, yet still 3 voted against the mandate, or a mandate with an opt-out option.
Brevard County and Brevard County Public Schools has made national headlines several times in the last few weeks over the handling of the pandemic response as Brevard has been identified as one of the most infected counties in the nation per 100k residents. Citizens have been asked by officials to use 911 sparingly, as hospitals have been overwhelmed and over capacity.
