Parents of Cobb County students file suit over COVID-19 policies

Parent of Cobb student with rare lung disease turns to homeschooling

Parents filing a lawsuit against Cobb County School District say sending their kids to class could be dangerous. Cobb County School District currently operates with a mask optional policy.

COBB COUNTY, Ga. - Some parents are saying Cobb County School District is not doing enough to protect their children from COVID-19.

A group of parents with medically vulnerable children are suing the school district.

Parent Tarasha Shirley said her son has asthma and sending him to school would be dangerous.

"It's not a risk I'm willing to take," she said. "We just buried a 45-year-old uncle — who just passed from COVID— I don’t want to see what it can do to my son."

Parent of child with asthma critical of Cobb County schools COVID policies

She is one of several parents filing a lawsuit against the school district over its mask-optional policy. She says she doesn't want to risk her son's health, and the online instruction the district provides is inadequate.

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She said the online instruction her son is receiving is inadequate and without instruction from teachers.

She said she held her son out of in-person learning because there seems to be a disregard for public health protocols.

Another Cobb County parent, Jessica Ziegler, says her daughter has a rare lung disease and sending her daughter to school is dangerous.

"I couldn’t send her into the situation knowing she had a pretty good chance of getting hurt," she said. "So, I had to keep her home."

Cobb County School District currently has a mask-optional policy.

"There seems to be a lack of policy," said Brock Boone, a lawyer with Southern Poverty Law Center. "The policy isn’t following any CDC measures, the policy isn’t following anything from the Academy of Pediatrics. It’s not following the science."

Southern Poverty Law Center is representing the parents filing the suit.

our parents have been out into the impossible situation of either sending their child to school and risking severe, permanent illness—possibly death or not having an education at all."

Shirley says she and other parents have unsuccessfully appealed to the district. For now, her son will continue to learn online.

"He’s very smart but he can’t teach himself the material," she said.

A federal hearing for this suit is set for Oct. 15 In Marietta.

FOX 5 Atlanta has reached out to Cobb County School District for a comment, but is yet to hear back.

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