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School district in Texas closes after two teachers die of Covid within days of each other

Superintendent tells parents buildings will receive a deep clean while parents, students isolate

John Bowden
Wednesday 01 September 2021 22:42 BST
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<p>A public school district in Texas is closing for one week amid a massive Covid-19 surge. </p>

A public school district in Texas is closing for one week amid a massive Covid-19 surge.

A school district in Waco, Texas is closing for one week after two teachers died from Covid-19 in just a span of a few days.

The state is currently bearing the brunt of a new wave of Covid-19 infections, which has caused hospitalizations to climb and ICU beds to be in short supply across the state. Now students in the state will lose one week of classes, with no plans to go remote, after two deaths occurred among the teaching staff at Connally Junior High School, a local news channel reported.

The news was broken to parents in an email from superintendent Wesley Holt earlier this week; on Wednesday, the district went a step further and canceled a planned football game between Connally High School and La Vega High School, part of the nearby La Vega Independent School District.

"Our hope is that the closure and holiday break will provide those who are positive with the virus or exposed to others with the virus, the time to isolate and recover. This closure will also allow time for deep cleaning and sanitizing of all CISD facilities," said Mr Holt, according to KHOU-11.

"Parents will receive information from their campus principal on how students will access remote conferencing with their assigned teacher, and the requirements for attendance purposes. We will do our best to keep learning in progress," his email continued.

Texas is ranked 34th in the nation in terms of the percentage of the over-12 population that has been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. The state’s governor, Republican Greg Abbott, has twice sought to ban public school districts like Connally from implementing mask mandates for students, though his order is facing a legal challenge before the state Supreme Court.

The governor’s efforts have been condemned by those who have suggested that a lack of masks in schools will lead to more districts like Connally being forced to close and lose school days.

"After everything that kids have been through over the last year and a half, it's devastating to think that Texas schools are going to have to keep closing because they don't have mask mandates to stop these outbreaks," Stephanie Rubin, CEO of children’s advocacy nonprofit Texans Care for Children, told the Austin-American Statesman.

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