Cobb Parents, Teachers, Students Chronicle Breaking Points As COVID Ravaged District

COBB COUNTY, GA — As the Cobb County School District revoked its mask mandate and relaxed its COVID-19 quarantine protocols district parents before the start of the school year, cases soared in that first month — and district parents, students and teachers reached their limits.

An East Cobb mother cold-called School Board Chair Randy Scamihorn in early August, she told nonprofit news organization ProPublica, and raised concerns over the district's preparedness for the delta variant. Scamihorn likened COVID-19 to a head cold.

“Sure, it’s more contagious,” Scamihorn told her on the call. “But it’s less lethal and, uh, probably it’s more like a head cold.”

“My point is,” he said, “we look at it from a statistical point of view. Kids are pretty well immune to it, and we’ve always known that.”

ProPublica spoke to parents, educators and a student to share their stories of what was happening behind the scenes in Georgia's second-largest school district. Read their stories via ProPublica's website.