[This is an opinion piece From the Editor]
UPDATE: Shortly after I wrote this, the link to COVID numbers for the district was updated, but just with a weekly total. No cumulative total, and no breakdown by individual schools.
Given that the weekly number just posted was 1,856, just over a quarter of the entire number of cases through December 17, there is no mystery as to why the school district is not reporting the cumulative number or breakdowns by school.
The Cobb County School District still has the following message on its website:
Every Friday, when school is in session, Cobb Schools will provide you with the number of new active COVID-19 cases.
District cumulative totals will reflect District totals since July 1st, 2021. School-by-school cumulative totals will reflect school totals since face-to-face instruction began on August 2nd, 2021.
Yet the numbers still haven’t been updated since December 17, 2021 (I have great hope, but not much faith that by the time you follow the previous link the first part of this statement will no longer be correct).
Who knows? Maybe they’ll surprise me and release the numbers today. After all, it is a Friday.
But the fact that the Georgia Department of Public Health School-Aged Surveillance Report today shows an increase in Cobb County COVID cases among 5 to 17-year olds leads me to believe that a school district that has never been known for its transparency is unlikely to release those numbers.
We’ve all read the gibberish public-relations statements they’ve given to other media outlets (the district still won’t respond to the Courier, probably because of our practice of shedding light on their unique take on how sorting integers to report on test ranking works).
They are in the process of deciding whether or not they’ll reveal to parents and other members of the public how many cases are in the schools, and whether those numbers are going up or down.
This should not be a political issue. And the district does not need to feel like they’ve caved in to pressure if they just start doing the right thing, and release the numbers.
Hell, I’ll compliment them if they do it. It’s better to do the right thing late than to not do it at all.
