NEW ORLEANS — As COVID cases continue to rise in Orleans Parish Public Schools parents continue to plea for a virtual option.
"I'm extremely concerned," said Dr. Ashonta Wyatt, mother of a NOLA-PS 10th grader.
It's been less than a month since NOLA-PS students returned to school.
But, already hundreds of students and staff have tested positive for COVID-19 and thousands of others have been quarantined.
Making Dr. Wyatt afraid to send her son back to school.
"Right now it's just not the safest option to have students and families being forced with the only option of being in person," said Dr. Wyatt.
At Thursday's COVID update meeting, the school board said they're doing their part in keeping students safe.
"These quarantines, these counts show our schools are following the procedures laid out in our COVID care guidance," said NOLA-PS Superintendent Dr. Henderson Lewis, Jr.
As of Monday, the NOLA-PS COVID tracker showed 370 positive cases, with more than three thousand students and staff quarantined.
"This again is high. We know that but it's a result of our schools following the guidance and we applaud them for that," said Tiffany Delcour, NOLA-PS Chief Operations Officer.
But, even as numbers continue to rise, medical advisor, Dr. Ben Springgate, reminds parents that closures are not likely.
"At this time we do not see uncontrolled or unmitigated transmissions in schools and LDH has not call for any school closures as a result,' said Dr. Springgate.
The board continues to offer mitigation strategies including a vote to encourage schools to require schools mandate proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test, something half of the schools are already doing, encouraging charters to require after school participants to submit to weekly testing, and for all schools to implement weekly testing for students and staff.
"We must all do our part," said NOLA-PS Board President, Ethan Ashley.
But, a coalition of parents continues to ask for another preventive measure: a virtual learning option for all students.
"I understand that in person is the best option if we were in some sense of normalcy but we're not," said Dr. Wyatt, who as a doctorate in education.
As an educator, Dr. Wyatt says she understands not all students have the luxury her child may have, but, she says safety is the more important.
"If I had to choose between learning loss and loss of people. I'm going to always side what the safety of people," said Dr. Wyatt.
The NOLA-PS school board expected to vote on the extra COVID safety mitigation strategies and the vaccine mandate for the administrative staff at Thursday night's school board meeting.