By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The Savannah School District has implemented a mask mandate for two elementary schools and one middle school.
As of Wednesday, the Savannah Middle School, as well as the Amazonia and John Glenn Elementary schools are required to wear masks for at least the next two weeks.
District spokesperson Jess Gillett says a recent spike in illnesses, mostly COVID-19, forced the district to put the mandate in place.
"We saw a bunch of COVID positive students, and staff members, coming up just within this week," Gillett tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "And so, that is really what forced our hand on putting that mask mandate in place."
Gillett says the board decided in January that if a school were to have five-percent or more testing positive on campus, a mask mandate would be put in place.
Gillett adds in Amazonia it was just barely enough to put them over five-percent, but both John Glenn and Savannah Middle School were well over that mark.
Gillett says the district had been seeing success with its 'Test to Stay' program, but the recent spike has caused that program to run into some problems.
"Really we're starting to see this shortage of supplies, we don't have enough testing supplies to support that program anymore," Gillett says. "And so unfortunately, kids are having to stay out, kids and staff, are having to stay out of school longer because they're not able to test early to return."
Gillett is hopeful that the district will receive more testing supplies from the state, or wherever they may come from, so it is able to test and get students and faculty back to school faster.
Gillett says the district is aware of lawsuits being filed by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, but says the district is not fearful of receiving one, because it knows it's not breaking any laws or state mandates.
"We are well within our rights to protect our kids, and at the end of the day, that's what we're going to do is do what we know is healthiest for our kids," Gillett says. "And if we've got a bunch of kids getting sick, and having them wear masks for a while is going to help not have so many kids be sick, then that's what we're going to do, and everything else has to come second to that."
Earlier this week, Schmitt filed 45 lawsuits against Missouri school districts that had continued enforcing mask mandates.