Scottsdale Unified School District students returned to school from winter break on Tuesday. But not high school senior and cancer survivor Emma Kerr.
Emma's immune system is better but still somewhat compromised after her fight with cancer and contracting Valley fever, she said.
“I didn’t go to school today mostly because I knew it was just going to be horrible and the amount of safety that there was going to be would be little to no safety,” Emma said.
Emma and her mom, Ildi Laczko-Kerr, are confused about why the district decided to drop the mask requirement it had in place last semester when there's an ongoing spike of COVID-19 cases.
“I am worried about my child and other kids and staff like her that are put in jeopardy of potentially getting serious cases of COVID if they were to get sick from being at school.” Ildi said.
Emma hopes the district will reinstate a mask requirement and plans on doing as much school work as she can remotely in the meantime.
SUSD will monitor COVID-19 cases by school and may implement enhanced mitigation measures such as a mask requirement if it sees evidence of in-school spread of the virus. the district said in a Monday statement.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated to correct Emma Kerr’s year in school and to correct spelling of Ildi Laczko-Kerr’s name.
