Parents voice concerns about district quarantine, game participation

September 25, 2020
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By Amanda Rogers

Mansfield Record

Parents lined up at Tuesday’s school board meeting to voice their opinions about the school district’s quarantine policy and about bands and drill teams participating at high school football games.

Currently, students who sit in close proximity to another student who tests positive for COVID-19 must quarantine at home for 14 days. Parents said they were concerned that healthy students were being kept from classes.

“If they’re unfortunate enough to sit closer than 6 feet for 15 minutes, they have to quarantine for 14 days,” said Michele Windsor, a MISD teacher whose son James is a senior and one of the football captains at Mansfield High School. “He’s terrified of losing football.”

“I want them to lift the 14-day quarantine,” Windsor said. “I don’t think it’s fair to quarantine healthy kids. I know a kid that got COVID. She feels so guilty. I worry about kids getting bullied. What if they hurt themselves? I want to know how many of them have gotten COVID-19.

As of Sept. 22, Mansfield ISD had 222 students in quarantine, said Hope Boyd, director of communications and marketing.

Superintendent Kimberley Cantu said the school district gets daily COVID-19 updates on the students and staff.

“We have some students who have been sent home who have come down with COVID,” Cantu explained.

Other parents were concerned about the high school bands and drill teams participating at football games. On Wednesday, the district announced that the high school band directors had decided that their squads would only perform at in-district games, while the drill team sponsors planned to perform at all games.

The drill teams may not be able to be at all out-of-district games, though, if the host stadium doesn’t have enough seating to accommodate them, Boyd explained.

“Our goal is for our fine arts students to safely perform any time it is possible," Boyd said. "If they are not performing at a game, there will be another showcase opportunity available to them for that week. It may be at the campus or at a stadium, but students will be performing weekly."

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