Parent weighs in on Stewart County Schools’ mask mandate

STEWART COUNTY, Ga. (WTVM) - The Stewart County School District has announced a mask mandate for students and teachers in the 2022-2023 school year.

Shaconda Screws is a mother of three with two of her children currently attending Stewart County Schools, and she says the sudden change for all children to wear masks is a welcome relief for her.

“Safety first, always because if you have young kids at home and you don’t know how their body is going to tolerate it if it’s introduced to them,” says Screws.

She has had COVID twice and doesn’t want her kids to experience the potentially fatal disease symptoms. Her children are eight and 17, and she says it’s her job to protect them.

“With them being so young, and me seeing COVID, the actual effects of COIVD, even though I survived, and my body was strong enough to fight, I don’t want them to go through the trauma of it,” says Screws.

Doctor Sarita Mobley, the local family physician, studies the numbers daily and says the school made the right choice.

“Oh absolutely, so when you look at the statistics, what you find is that the elderly people who get COVID, it’s generally from their kids, their grandkids, and they bring it home, and then they get it,” says Mobley.

And she says with limited access to health care in Stewart County, people living in that area must take steps to keep county numbers low.

“Definitely in a small community like this, where there is limited health care resources here, it’s very important to control the spread covid, so whatever we can do, social distancing, masking, all of that makes a difference,” says Mobley.

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