Jackson Jambalaya

I agree with everything he said, except that the youngest kids are "much less likely to spread the virus."

Over two months ago, I said:

“Education received a pass for the fourth nine weeks of 2020. If we are not ready for online instruction in the future, it’s on us-and it will be a moral and ethical failing.”

Now here we are, on top of the customary start of school, with no direction from the Legislature, the Governor and the State Superintendent.

(In fairness, I will point out that we finally have some direction on spending money for computers, remote instruction software and training. But the expected delivery dates are in November!)

I certainly agree that children will learn best at school, and I understand the hardships associated with not opening school. WE HAVE NO GOOD OPTIONS. We must select the least bad option and go ahead.

I think most school boards now realize that face to face learning is not practical at this time, but I’m afraid they feel state (and Federal) leaders will not back, and perhaps punish, such decisions.

If I were at the talk by Dr. Dobbs this morning, I would have asked him if he has shared his thoughts with the Governor and State Superintendent.

If the Governor leaves bars and restaurants open and closes schools he will not only further the spread of the virus but severely damage children's lives. That would be a horrifying mistake.

They have had since spring break to figure out what to do with this school year and have done nothing. Now here it is the week before school is supposed to start and they are going to make a decision/change. Get it together!!! Parents, who work, have to make plans!!!

what about school sports? If school openings are delayed, will sports be paused as well?

Kind of odd that the people, primarily republicans, that have been champions of home schooling are now champions of kids having to be in school.

Our local district already had multiple cases of COVID traced to football practice. Corinth had a confirmed COVID case the first week they were open. The superintendent of my wife's district came around and told all the employees "I don't know what you are worked up over, you all will likely get it and get over it". Masks are in policy but staff, including the principal, aren't following it.

Tate needs to understand you have to rule by order not by request. COVID doesn't respect school district boundaries and all it takes is one incident to result in multiple cases no matter how good the individual county numbers look.

We need strict rules that are enforced. In-school classes up to 6th grade or maybe 8th. Kids stay in the same room all day, masks are required, teachers are given adequate PPE and space to practice social distancing, and absolutely no extracurricular activities. High school will be done by distance learning. Sports are all postponed until Spring.

Tate is trying to play both sides of the fence and that is not what we need as Mississippi has been identified as currently being the worse state in the nation for COVID spread among the community. We need a strong leader who is going to get things under control, not someone who is taking the "all or nothing" approach to handling it and has apparently decided "nothing" is what we need to do to control the spread.

Shut the schools down until Labor Day and only reopen if the infection rate puts Mississippi at or below the national average.

Kind of odd that the people, primarily republicans, that have been champions of home schooling are now champions of kids having to be in school.

Kind of odd that people, primarily democrats, that have been demanding that all children must be educated at the public school closest to their home now believe that those same children can be educated in the home or in pods in their local churches or other spaces by someone other than credentialed educators.

Nothing about education has changed. The children with parents actively involved in their upbringing will continue to be educated. Those without won't.

Yes, what about sports, dammit?!?

If football season doesn't go on, full blast as scheduled, you can kiss this country goodbye.

Tater is flat out lying about young children. The evidence from overseas schools, summer camps here in the US, and studies about their huge viral loads shows that young kids are little virus factories. In a school district that tried to re open too soon, they, within a week, have had to quarantine 260 staff. This is a predictable disaster.

Just as with sports, it's just stupid to think you're not going to have significant spread. MLB has seen it. Football is seeing it. God help us if we don't play a stupid game for a year, right?

He's got his head in the sand, to support the guy urging everyone else to drive off a cliff. As that guy heads to the golf course.

But, Tate, you can do better. And you haven't looked at the risk factors for the staff and faculty for those younger kids. You're going to kill a bunch of the staffers and teachers, and the communities that lose them will remember. At the ballot box.

Stop listening to Deniers and Liars. Start listening to the docs. We are in a huge surge. 1000 dead a day. But, hey, maybe Tate, you can just shrug and say, "It is what it is." Meh. No big deal.

8:09 You do realize this pandemic is dynamic, not static, right? Things in the spring were quite a bit different than they are now......................

Tate again...."We've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas."

@10:13 Agreed. We can and need to do better if we're planning on sending our kids to school. The CDC guidelines for reopening was all predicated on having decreasing numbers for prescribed periods of time. We are not there, not at all. If we've determined that the benefit of sending kids to school outweighs the risk (which is entirely possible), then we need to put ourselves in the best position to make sure its safe. This includes universal mask mandates across the state, closing of bars and churches, reduced capacity indoor dining (if at all), cracking down on large crowd events (jackson basketball tourneys and flag island parties, i'm looking at you) and of course....sports. Its really not all that much to ask.

Make everyone feel better about their impending deaths. Cancel EVERYTHING for 2020 and early 2021. Start over again in Spring. Will still have Covid, but may have a better handle on it, Not. At least the sheep and rt folks will do better.

If we shut down one thing we need to shut them all down. I see that "Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba issued an executive order Tuesday that will close off bars to indoor guests. All bars, nightclubs, lounges, taverns and private clubs must close, unless that can provide only take-out, pickup or delivery services. Bar tops and bar areas in all restaurants must close to the public. Employees may work behind bar tops to serve drinks for patrons at tables or curbside." Tate will probably do the same. No one needs any of this as well as church or the need to drive around. Unless an actual essential person (must have state mandated ID, persons not going to a store, needs to be cited. No need for legislative action, just let the Governor make an edict and as it is said, Let it be written, let it be done. Civil Rights be damned for the sake of the children. They need to live without them anyway.

I've lived a long time and through numerous national crisis. But never before have I seen so many "experts" that know exactly what the situation is and how to handle it.

Ahem! What about the teachers?

11:29 I'm of the opposite opinion. I've never seen so many legitimate experts that should know how to handle the situation be so absolutely ineffective. Is it politics? Is it personal opinion clouding the science? I don't know, but the extremes of opinions on what to do are hurting us badly. It is a symptom of the partisan era in which we live.

You tell me what is wrong when Anthony Fauci, Deborah Birx, Thomas Dobbs, and LouAnn Woodward all say Mississippi has lost all control over COVID and schools should not reopen until it is reined in, and yet here we are not only likely charging ahead but also debating if competitive sports should take place in less than a month. These are real experts at the highest levels of responsibility in both the state and the nation, yet their unanimous recommendation is falling on deaf ears.

"What about the teachers?" Like the rest of us folks that can't/won't be able to work, unemployment and wait it out.

12:34, exactly. The White House's OWN guidelines, and the CDC guidelines, are that areas with more than 5% positivity rates should not reopen schools yet.

But here we are at 21.7%, and folks are rip roaring to spread this even more. I know some folks here are mathematically challenged, but that's over 4 times the guideline.

Would a certified LEO or trooper stop someone who blows .32 on the DUI machine, and let them go ahead? He'd go to jail or lose his job over that.

Reeves KNOWINGLY is trying to, yet again, ignore the guidelines. We "re opened" without ever hitting 2 stinking weeks of declines in cases. But, we went right ahead.

At some point, the politician have to be held accountable for receiving guidelines and ignoring them.

And, again, this is the White House watered down stuff. As Fauci said it, we were never even 50% closed, much less really "locked down."

And we've paid for it with 155,000 dead. What does it take to do the right thing, Guv?

Y'all were all over each other cuddling and smooching over drinks at Martin's and the flag issue. And then y'all came up positive. Didn't that teach you guys anything?

Standing by for the "herd immunity" lovers in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

They always fail to mention that implementing herd immunity would result in tens of thousands of more deaths.

It is ironic that conservative Republicans and teachers have for the past few years denigrated 'those' parents who depended on the schools as a tax funded day care while in the face of current rants by conservatives who demand that they are entitled to the free day care to enable them to work. Yeah. Obviously entitlements are earned benefits for Republicans but welfare when they benefit 'those' people.