Mason Schools Superintendent Jonathan Cooper, who leads Warren County’s largest district, was featured this week in a national CNN interview and a story in the Wall Street Journal.
Cooper’s district was one chosen by Ohio officials to study whether the previous requirement of quarantining students at home for 14 days, even if they were wearing a mask within proximity of a classmate who tested positive for the coronavirus, was appropriate. The practice was causing more harm than good, he said.
Cooper spoke about the national issue shortly before DeWine issued new school quarantine guidance that says students and teachers who meet the definition of a close contact (being within 6 feet of a COVID-infected person for 15 minutes or more) no longer have to quarantine if the contact occurred in a school classroom and if all parties were masked at the time.
“We’re over-quarantining kids like crazy,” Cooper told CNN. “Kids are wearing mask 100 percent of the time. And within that three-foot distance of each other, we have not seen any network of spread or any community spread within that zone.”
“And what we have found over time is that we have not seen that community spread within schools. So, schools have been a safe place for our kids to be.
“So quarantining kids, putting them out for 14 days at a time when they’re healthy is a big stress on the system. It’s a stress for families, it’s a stress for our teachers and it’s a stress for our students who are really struggling with that mental health component.”
In November, Mason School officials reported 15 Mason students were taken to the hospital after reporting suicidal thoughts.
Cooper told CNN “we’ve seen an uptick in the concerns over our mental health with our students because of this.”
“It’s hard for our students that are at home to find that sense of belonging. They feel disconnected. That social isolation is the piece that they’re experiencing.”
The superintendent shared an emailed complaint with the Wall Street Journal from a Mason student athlete early in the fall.
“The student … had been seated in class, masked, near another student who later tested positive,” according to Cooper’s quote.
The student told Cooper “I am so upset right now that I have to miss my first playoff game and possibly my last high school game ever,” and pleaded for Cooper to reconsider the quarantine rule.
Cooper said he sent the student’s email to DeWine’s office with a request for an exception of the student quarantine rule at that time but the governor’s office denied the request.
But this week, DeWine cited the school quarantine study and announced a loosening of those rules and Cooper praised the action.
“They (state officials’ study) have found that the classrooms … are safe places and are not seeing any (coronavirus) spread with masks on,” he said in a video statement later sent to school families.
“That will help immensely to keep our kids in school.”
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