WBBJ TV July 27, 2021 The Jackson-Madison County NAACP is requesting that Jackson-Madison County Schools reconsider school openings without a mask mandate. The reason being: the new delta variant emerging. Health officials say the variant is more transmissible than the original strain of COVID-19. President of the Jackson-Madison County NAACP, Harrell Carter says making masks optional in schools will cause COVID-19 cases to increase, endangering students. “Let’s not expose our children, our staff members, the public, their homes when they go back to spread the virus,” Carter said. “We do not need to expose them at this point. We are still in a pandemic, as quiet as it is kept.”