HORN LAKE, Miss. – Friday was the deadline for DeSoto County Schools parents to switch their children to either virtual or in-person learning for the upcoming semester.
It comes as DeSoto County students continue to test positive for COVID-19. In the week ending December 4th, DCS added 66 new COVID cases, and many more students had to quarantine.
Horn Lake High School led the pack with six new cases. While Hernando Middle School only had three new cases, 50 students had to quarantine.
“I think they need to go virtual, I do. They need to stay home because it’s very dangerous out there right now in my opinion,” said Beverly Schingle.
But despite Schingle’s apprehension, her granddaughter is attending in-person classes, as are the vast majority of DeSoto County students.
Most parents WREG spoke with say they won’t switch to virtual learning for next semester.
“They’re very much happy at school. They want to be in school, they love school. When they were out of school, they weren’t happy, you know, isolated,” said Teresa Sommerfeld whose two grandchildren are attending in-person classes.
Crystal Jones said her high school son is also attending classes in person while her sixth grade son is learning virtually. But next semester, she said she was considering switching him to in-person classes.
“It’s just really hard trying to like get them online, and they’re constantly telling us that everything is not – hasn’t been submitted,” said Jones.
New weekly COVID cases at all DeSoto County Schools campuses remained in the single digits according to the latest data.
Data for the week ending December 11 is expected to be released Monday.
