Escanaba School Superintendent Coby Fletcher issued a press release on Tuesday to answer questions raised by parents and others about his decision to close the high school and junior high to in-person instruction last Thursday.
Elementary schools have remained open in the days since.
Sports and other after-school activities were also put on a 14-day pause, prompting the Eskymo varsity football team to rally in front of the high school building Tuesday afternoon hoping to have Fletcher change his mind.
“We’re just doing all we can to try to get our season back,” Escanaba senior Bryant Maki said. “It got taken away from us. We didn’t have anything to do with it. It’s frustrating because we’ve done everything that we’ve been told to. We followed all the protcols on the field and in the locker room. Our team has zero cases. Our team’s families have zero cases. Nothing’s happened to us, but we still got shut down.”
Fletcher provided this statement to RRN News on football team’s rally: “We understand and appreciate how much our athletes want to continue their seasons. We look forward to resuming late next week.”
In his Tuesday press release, Fletcher said that “COVID-19 spreads as actively among athletes and other participants in other extracurricular activities as it does in school.” He called the pause “unfortnate but necessary.”
Some parents have taken to social media in the past several days to demand a reversal of the decsiion, and some have called on the Escanaba School Board to intervene. Fletcher’s press release is below:
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