STANLY COUNTY, N.C. — School districts are making plans around safety protocols for the upcoming school year after Gov. Roy Cooper recommended all public schools require teachers and students in a K-12 setting to wear a mask.
The daughter of a Stanly County elementary school teacher who died from COVID-19 in October 2020 is urging everyone to pause and remember the pandemic is not over yet, and teachers and school staff need to be safe too because they have family members to get home to.
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Julie Davis was a dedicated 3rd-grade teacher at Norwood Elementary School in Stanly County. She died nine months ago and her daughter is reminded every single day just how real COVID-19 is, especially with cases rising again.
Davis taught for a living. After she died following a quick battle with COVID-19, some of her most valuable life lessons have helped her daughter Leanna Richardson cope.
“She always had this saying and I use it all the time: 'Put your big girl panties on and get through it,'” Richardson remembered.
But sometimes getting through it without her mom here is difficult.
“Not having that person that you can call," Richardson said. "Not having that advice and then there’s the minor things that you take for granted. You don’t get the Sunday dinners anymore. You don’t get the warm fuzzy hugs."
As COVID-19 spreads faster than ever before because of the more contagious delta variant, and schools get ready to reopen for in-person learning, Richardson is urging parents to have an open mind on safety protocols.
“If they do make the call that masks need to be mandated, by all means, know they’re doing that on the err of caution,” she said. “No one predicted my mom would've died."
Stanly County elementary school students were learning in person when Davis got sick. She started showing symptoms on Friday, Sept. 25, and began to self-quarantine. When the school learned of her positive test result on Sept. 27, nurses began working with the Stanly County Health Department on contact tracing.
Students and staff who had been in close contact with Davis were quarantined. The school district says no one who was around Davis became symptomatic or tested positive for the virus. School leaders say Davis did not contract the virus at school. Her family questioned that.
Her daughter often wonders if they would’ve had a different outcome if a vaccine had been around then.
She wants her mom’s story to be a reminder that teachers also have families to get home safely to when the school day ends.
“As frustrating as it may be, know that it’s easier to deal with something uncomfortable on your face or go through a couple of extra hoops to be extra, extra safe than to plan a funeral,” she said.
Stanly County schools have not decided on whether teachers and students will have to wear masks yet. They meet next Tuesday, Aug. 3.