Over 800 told to quarantine in Georgia school district days after photos of maskless students went viral

Just over one week since the school year started, more than 826 students and 42 staff from one Georgia school district have been asked to quarantine — after several tested positive for COVID-19, according to the district's website.

Cherokee County School District, which is just north of Atlanta, is sharing regular updates on coronavirus cases in its schools with the community — and the number of students and staff being told to quarantine is on the rise, from 250 on Friday to over 800 Monday.

The district has 40 schools and centers, 4,800 employees and more than 42,200 students.

“We have students and staff reporting presumptive, pending and positive COVID-19 tests every day, and this will continue as we operate schools during a pandemic,” Cherokee County Schools Superintendent Brian Hightower wrote in a letter to parents Friday, adding that the school system was taking “extra steps for transparency.”

"We know we're under a microscope, as national media follows the reopening of schools across the country," he wrote. "But know that our decisions are not based on what people in New York or Kansas think, nor are we concerned about 'optics' or 'image' – we're focused on what's doing best for our community."

Cherokee County gained national attention last week as maskless photos of students went viral. Dozens of seniors gathered at two high schools to take traditional first-day-of-school senior photos, with students squeezing together in black outfits. No one in the pictures wore a mask.

Hightower said in his Friday letter that many of the seniors in those online photos “wear masks routinely.”

He and the district also recommend the wearing of masks, especially when social distancing isn't possible — though the school district still doesn't require face coverings.

Cherokee County isn't the only Georgia school system to see infection shortly after reopening for in-person instruction.

In a neighboring school district, photos of crowded hallways with maskless students similarly went viral last week. And after nine students and staff recently tested positive for COVID-19 at North Paulding High School, all classes were temporarily moved online.

And last week, hundreds of employees in Georgia's largest school district, Gwinnett County Public Schools, either tested positive for COVID-19 or were exposed to the virus, officials said. About 260 employees were "excluded from work" due to coronavirus exposure.

North Paulding: 9 students, staff test positive for COVID-19 after Georgia school hallway photo goes viral

Gwinnett County: 260 employees in Georgia's largest school district test positive for COVID-19 or are exposed

More than 80 Georgia school districts have opened or plan to open for some kind of in-person instruction by Aug. 17, according to figures kept by school reform group GeorgiaCAN.

Gov. Brian Kemp said Monday that the reopening of some of the state’s schools amid the coronavirus outbreak has gone well — except for the widely shared photos of students crowded together without masks.

“Quite honestly this week went real well other than a couple of virtual photos,” Kemp said at a news conference with U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams.

Kemp cited a downward trend in hospitalizations from the coronavirus — which have declined about 10% since peaking at the end of July, according to figures from the Georgia Department of Public Health.

“As I’ve said before, we have come a long way, but we are not out of the woods yet and we cannot take our foot off the gas,” Kemp said.

Still, others stress their concerns about the safety of reopening at this time.

“There is just no way right now that we can sensibly open schools for in-person instruction,” said Gwinnett County school board member Everton Blair. “You see evidence of the very same thing in counties across the state, where immediately, the first day that they open, they’re immediately quarantined.”

Contributing: The Associated Press. Doug Stanglin and Joel Shannon, USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Over 800 to quarantine in Georgia school district with optional masks