Staff Photo by Matt Hamilton / Operations manager Avery Fairburn sets out fliers on Friday for the Chattanooga Free Store’s Back to School Community Day at the Highland Park Commons. The store will host another event in the same location from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on August 14.A group of Hamilton County parents and Tennessee doctors are calling on the Hamilton County school board and county Mayor Jim Coppinger to issue a temporary mask mandate for local schools in the face of political pressure to do otherwise.
During a Monday morning news conference, three local parents said school officials should follow the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which say all children and adults in schools should be wearing masks.
Children under 12 are ineligible for vaccines, and teen vaccine rates are low, as the delta variant causes a surge of cases and hospitalizations.
Stacie Teague Smith, a parent of four children in local schools, said the spread of the delta variant and the lack of precautions in schools will hurt families.
“It feels inevitable that our family will face multiple quarantines,” she said. “How are working parents supposed to manage? We can’t rely on grandparents or others with such a dangerous virus and how much time off will our employers allow? How do we cope with weeks of lost wages? How many ten-day quarantines until we lose our jobs?”