Letter to the EDITOR

Dear Forney Messenger,

This is an open letter to Dr. Terry, FISD Administration, and the FISD Board of Trustees:

My name is James Jarrett. I am 46 years old and in reasonably good health. My family and I have made Forney our home for the past 14 years. I am a front-line healthcare worker supporting patients and their families in hospice care both here in Forney and in the surrounding region.

At my wife’s and my request, our youngest daughter (a student in the 5th Grade at Rhodes Intermediate School) has worn a mask to school every day since the 2021-22 school year began. Remember, however, that her mask protects other people from her germs. Other people’s masks protect her from their germs. As I’m sure you are aware, hardly anyone is wearing masks in FISD so far this year.

This past week, that same youngest daughter tested positive for COVID-19 (with symptoms). Yesterday, a PCR test confirmed I also am positive for COVID-19 (with symptoms). I am fully vaccinated and in reasonably good health. Because of that, I am hopeful that my breakthrough infection will pass in the next several days without more serious symptoms or the need for hospitalization.

I write today not so much for myself as on behalf of the medically fragile people in our community. People for whom a COVID-19 diagnosis may still be a death sentence. These are our parents, our grandparents, our siblings, our spouses, our friends, and our children. They are the people that our FISD students, teachers, and support staff go home to each day bringing the miasma of germs they have picked up in FISD facilities. These people are us.

Vaccinations are an important component in protecting the people in our community and around the world from COVID-19. I applaud FISD for providing information and the readily accessible vaccine clinics you continue to make available in our community. This is not enough. Personal protective equipment (masks), physical distancing, regular hand hygiene, and symptom screening remain 4 necessary tools in slowing the spread of COVID-19 and for protecting the people who need it most.

As an example of the effectiveness of these 4 protocols, I offer the example of UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Every day on its COVID-19 page, UTSW publishes the infections rates among its 19,000 employee population in the following table: