DARE COUNTY, N.C. — All students in Dare County Public Schools are returning to virtual learning. This comes shortly after some students went back into the building for in-person learning in late October.
Since then, the division has had more than a dozen cases of COVID-19 in its schools.
Dare County parents, like Michele Young-Stone, worried about students and teachers returning to in-person learning in late October during the pandemic.
“If you have one person test positive, you really have to quarantine the whole classroom,” said Young-Stone.
Now, they don’t have to since all students returned to virtual learning and will stay virtual until Jan. 15.
Young-Stone said, “I know it’s like psychologically difficult on everyone, but the alternative is people dying.”
The Dare County school board decided this after the division learned 16 positive cases had surfaced in school buildings and 426 people had direct contact with those who were infected.
School officials say so many educators got COVID-19 and some teachers’ assistants were teaching because the school division didn’t have enough substitutes.
“They were just overloaded,” said Young-Stone.
Young-Stone’s son, Christopher, says he’s glad the classes are going online again.
“I think it’s better. We should’ve just kept virtual. At least you could’ve considered it after the first semester is over. Mid-semester just seemed irrational,” said Christopher Young-Stone.
He said he had four English teachers in the last three weeks, during the hybrid schedule.
Parent Helen Furr said her twins are in seventh grade in the school division.
“Is it ideal? No. None of it is,” said Furr.
But she sees the staffing issue and she doesn't think they’ll be the first or last school division to return to virtual learning again this year.
“So when you do have an outbreak and you’re required to quarantine, you have to be able to properly have enough people in the school,” said Furr.