I’ve needed to get his off my chest for a few weeks now……

I’ve devoted a good portion of my professional career working K-12s and JUCOs in Mississippi. There are some incredibly talented folks that work in education and I’ve personally made a few lifelong friendships from that association. Since public education has a political component however, there are also some folks that are without doubt among the biggest imbeciles I’ve ever met that also work in the field. Lately more than a few school districts have volunteered themselves up along those lines with their pandemic re-opening plans, Jackson County and it’s new Superintendent being one that comes to mind and with them it starts with having what can be most charitably described as band of idiots for a School Board. Such condition appears to be locally epidemic here in the Magnolia State.

Lest this post be construed as a painting with a broad brush Slabbed recognizes those districts that have busted their butts actually getting ready to start school in a pandemic, the municipal districts on the coast being examples of that and they are a credit to their communities. And when it became apparent that even their best efforts would still make it unwise to re-open Bay-Waveland Schools took the very prudent step to push the start date back after labor day, which was and remains the best decision any K-12 in this State has made so far this year. There is a benefit to listening to good advice during a public health emergency.

And then there is the other half:

Teachers share grim details of Mississippi school districts failing to uphold COVID reopening promises ~ Adam Ganucheau

At a school in the Jackson County School District, teachers received so few cleaning supplies from the district that they’re having to tear off-brand Lysol wipes in half just to have enough to wipe down desks between classes. A little more than a week since students returned to the district, teachers are already spending their own money to buy additional cleaning supplies for their classrooms.

In the Poplarville School District, administrators have told teachers that students are allowed to remove masks in classrooms if they are just two feet apart, directly countering recommendations of state health officials that everyone wear masks and stay six feet from other people.

You simply wonder what color the sky is in the lives of some of the folks running things, it could be very dark since their heads appeared to be inserted up their anuses:

Seniors at Oak Grove High School in Hattiesburg participated in their annual, school-sponsored senior celebration event the first week of school. Photos of the event on social media showed students on the school’s football field in very close quarters while wearing no masks. A few hours later, Lamar County School District officials sent parents of the seniors a text that read: “If your student participated this morning in Sr. celebration, we are notifying that a positive Covid case has been identified.”

Here in Stone County I was on my morning walk early this past Monday morning when a school bus bound for Stone Elementary passed me on the road. Maybe half of the kids were wearing a mask. Like Jackson County masks were optional in Stone’s original re-opening plan which tells me the decision makers here are taking their public health advice from politicians and the TV news from New York instead of doctors (see paragraph 1).

The results are pretty predictable:

COVID-19 outbreak closes Mississippi elementary school just one week after it reopened ~ Aallyah Wright and Kelsey Davis Betz

The media is certain to have no shortage of such stories in the coming days. It will take about 2 weeks for the results to begin showing up in the testing data, despite test volume being at a three month low.