Michelle Sakala initially planned to hold off on getting the vaccine that protects against COVID-19.
She is a nurse with FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital and was eligible to receive it. But she was also breastfeeding her infant daughter, Monroe (think “Monroe” the president, not Marilyn, says Sakala, whose older daughter is named Kennedy.)
“I initially said no to the vaccine when it was first offered to me,” says Sakala, who is 35 and married to an Army major. “Just because it wasn’t advised for women, or the hospital said, ‘We don’t advise you receiving the vaccine if you’re breastfeeding.’
The head of Cumberland County Schools said Tuesday that he believes students will be able to return to school buildings next month even if all teachers have not been vaccinated for COVID-19.
Superintendent Marvin Connelly Jr. and school board Chairwoman Alicia Chisolm will write a letter to Gov. Roy Cooper, asking him to declare teachers essential workers so they can be moved higher on the priority list for vaccinations.
Connelly told the Board of Education at its meeting that some teachers who are 65 years old or older have already been vaccinated. Residents who are that old and healthcare workers are the only ones who currently qualify for vaccinations.
With five days left before her son’s grades were due for the end of the grading period, Lynn Heinrich received a call that her son, Miles, hadn t been turning in school work for three weeks.
Heinrich, who works to maintain her own business, questioned why she was notified that the work wasn’t received after three days in a row or even a week after.
Yet in December she brought Miles into her office to ensure he was doing school work but received an email from his teacher saying it still wasn’t turned in.
“It was still all zeros,” Heinrich said. “And I was like, ‘I’m done.’ He was defeated. He was crying. He’s like, ‘I did it.’ I know he did it. I watched him.”
Brian Gordon and Paul Woolverton
USA TODAY NETWORK
Bridget Hurley, a fourth-grade student in Asheville, knows what she wants.
“I would like to go back to school,” she said. Her district, Buncombe County Schools, hasn’t had any in-person classes since Christmas, and Bridget misses her classmates.
“She learns better at school,” her mother, Cherylin Hurley, added. “They need to be in school. Safety has to be the first thing, but if grocery stores can open and other things can open, why not schools?”
At a press conference Tuesday, Gov. Roy Cooper agreed.
“We’ve learned much more about this virus, and now it’s time to get our children back into the classroom,” he said.
An Air Force veteran who now teaches science is one of four finalists for the 2021 National Teacher of the Year.
Maureen M. Stover, who teaches at Cumberland International Early College High School, is the 2020 Burroughs Wellcome Fund North Carolina Teacher of the Year. She and the other three finalists were announced Wednesday by the Council of Chief State School Officers, which facilitates the recognition program.
Stover, who served as an intelligence officer in the Air Force, is known by her students as the “Science Mom.” She has been teaching biology, earth and environmental science for more than three years at the early college and also holds a number of leadership roles there.