Open Letter to the Leadership of Horry County Schools

Schools in Horry County are currently unfit teaching and learning environments. The rapid spread of
COVID-19 and our failure to respond proactively to it are placing unreasonable and unnecessary physical
and mental strains on our administrators, nurses, staff, teachers, and -- most importantly -- students. Based
on the current statistical trends and the atomposhere inside our buildings, I call for real and immediate
change. We must do everything within our power to enact preventative measures that will protect every
person inside every Horry County school building.

We pride ourselves on being a data-driven district. The COVID-19 data should have already driven us to
make significant changes, but thus far, it has not. We see the daily statistics about positive and
quarantined individuals in our county and in our schools, including the dashboard updated by the district.
It should have already led to an overhaul of our current system after three weeks of evidence. If we
continue to do nothing, the numbers will continue to rise at an alarming rate, more students and staff will
get sick, and the school year will devolve into ruin. If we take action now, we have a chance to slow the
spread and reclaim the school year. We must make these decisions now to give us this opportunity.

We are not doctors or scientists, so we don’t know the best practices and detailed procedures we should
follow. But the medical professionals do. We must reach out to these unbiased, apolitical health officials
and then implement the guidelines they recommend -- whether they are politically expedient or not. We
could start by simply reimplementing many of the precautions we had in place last year. Some of them
cost nothing and could be reinstated tomorrow.

We should study and learn from counties in other states that are having relatively successful school
openings. We can use them as a model for how we can return to making every Horry County school a safe
environment with real learning for students. We cannot directly control what happens in Columbia, but
within the law, we can control what happens in Horry County Schools -- and what must happen here is the
renewed protection of every child and adult.

Last year was difficult, but at least we made an effort to protect those in our buildings and knew what to
expect on a daily basis. Students knew when they would be in class and when they would learn from
home. Teachers knew how to plan their lessons and did not have to try to teach in two modalities
simultaneously. We followed a hybrid schedule to limit the number of students in one area at any given
time. (More learning took place during a hybrid week last year than an “in-person” week this year --
especially considering more than 11,400 students are not, in fact, “in-person.”) Everyone wore masks.
Plexiglass barriers were installed to create a physical barrier between students. Eventually, we did go fully
virtual when the cases spiked immediately following the holiday break. (For what it’s worth, the 7-day
average of daily cases is now well above those days in early January.) It is impossible to know how many
cases these strategies prevented, but it had to be a significant number. The measures were inconvenient,
but they were in place to protect the students and adults in school buildings, and their presence allowed us
to successfully complete the year.

By June 2021, COVID-19 cases in Horry County had dropped to almost zero, which is when many of the
decisions for the current academic year were made. Of course we could not have foreseen the rise of the
Delta variant, but since it is the reality today, our unwillingness to consider the changing data and make
the changes suggested by it has led to the current catastrophe.

As it stands now, students sit in class not knowing when they will be called out and sent home. They go
through their school days in an atmosphere of confusion, uncertainty, and fear. Teachers are asked to teach
students in their rooms and at home simultaneously, not knowing which students will be in which
situation on any given day. Teachers are forced to cover classes and other responsibilities due to the
number of fellow staff who are out sick or quarantined. We cannot focus on the educational or emotional
needs of our students when faced with these additional non-academic and non-student-centric
requirements. School nurses and administrators are asked to follow quarantine guidelines that are
unnecessarily complicated and logistically impossible to maintain.

The fundamental problem is that the measures enacted this year are almost exclusively reactive -- not
proactive. There is obviously a vocal minority who resist any effort by the government or school district
to enact any rules that would infringe on their “rights” -- basically their rights NOT to protect themselves
or their students (and by extension everyone else). But our willingness to bow to this pressure has led to a
system in which more than 1,000 students and staff have been infected in the first two weeks of school --
and more than 11,400 students are out of their classrooms today.

The data suggests that we are just delaying the inevitable. Based on the statistical trends, we are all going
to be forced out of our classrooms for at least some amount of time this year. (Several schools in our
district already face this reality.) The number of cases in schools will not go down without a
reimplementation of serious preventative measures. By being proactive and taking these steps now --
rather than continuing to wait -- at least students and staff will know what to expect on a daily basis,
fewer people will get sick, and we will have a chance to reclaim the school year.

If our leadership will not make real changes immediately, I and other teachers throughout Horry County
are willing to take the steps necessary to protect ourselves and our students. I don’t want a fight. I want to
work together to make immediate, material changes for the physical, mental, and educational well-being
of everyone in Horry County Schools.

Sincerely,

Jerry Moore
St. James High School