County schools to require face masks on school buses ♦
Enforcement of the policy will being on Feb. 18
Gordon County Schools students will be required to wear protective face masks while riding school buses beginning Thursday, Feb. 18, in accordance with a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maskwearing order that builds upon a federal mask mandate announced Jan. 21 by President Joe Biden.
Executive Director of Student Services Mike Evelti told the Board of Education at their meeting on Monday night that only about 30 percent of students regularly riding buses are wearing masks while during so currently.
Evelti said that “some education” would be necessary to ensure that students and parents are prepared for the new change in protocol but emphasized that the school system would be doing its part to make the transition as easy as possible.
“We’ve ordered additional masks for our drivers. The drivers can hand them out to students who don’t have them,” he said. “We will also be restocking our supplies at all of our schools, K-12, providing them with masks so students will have enough to hopefully put on to travel on the buses to and from school.”
Drivers, staff, chaperons and any other individuals riding school buses will also be required to wear masks during trips, as will all students and adults traveling by bus to and from athletic events.
The 11-page mandate, which makes refusal to wear a mask a violation of federal law, does not only apply to students on school buses, but also makes wearing a mask mandatory for any passengers on “public conveyances,” including airplanes, ships, ferries, trains, subways, buses, taxis and rideshares, traveling into, within or out of the United States, as well as workers involved in the operation of those services and operators at transportation hubs like subway stations and bus terminals.
To fulfill the requirements
of the order, masks must completely cover the nose and mouth, should be made with two or more layers of tightly woven, breathable fabric and should be secured to the head “with ties, ear loops or elastic bands that go behind the head.” Masks should also be made of a solid piece of material without slits, exhalation valves or punctures.
Face shields, goggles, scarves, ski masks, bandannas, shirt collars pulled up over the mouth and nose, masks made from loose or knitted fabrics and those that contain slits, exhalation valves, or punctures do not meet the requirements of the mandate.
A full version of the CDC mandate can be found online at www.cdc.gov/quarantine/masks/mask-travelguidance.html.
The Georgia Senate passed two bills Thursday, Feb. 11, aimed at protecting victims of human trafficking, advancing a key plank of Gov. Brian Kemp’s legislative agenda.
One bill sponsored by state Sen. Clint Dixon, R-Buford, would allow human-trafficking victims to sue their traffickers in civil court for monetary damages.
The other bill, also sponsored by Dixon, would shield human-trafficking victims from public scrutiny if they seek to legally change their names by keeping namechange petitions under seal.
Dixon, a freshman who is one of the governor’s floor leaders in the Senate, said the governor-backed bills aim to protect some of the state’s most vulnerable community members.
“This is an issue that’s crucial to my county and yours ... and will help victims of human trafficking,” Dixon said.
Both bills passed unanimously and now head to the House for more voting. Kemp will likely sign them into law should they pass the General Assembly.
The governor has made fighting human trafficking a priority since taking office in 2019, charging the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to crack down harder on traffickers through a multi-agency task force. He also tasked his wife, First Lady Marty Kemp, to lead the trafficking-focused GRACE Commission.
Dixon’s bills follow legislation passed last year that toughened penalties for commercial drivers with humantrafficking criminal convictions and allowed victims to clear their court records of any offenses stemming from activities while they were being trafficked.
Kemp’s agenda this year also includes legislation requiring anyone who seeks a new or renewed commercial driver’s license in Georgia to complete a human-trafficking awareness course.
State officials created a new hotline last September for Georgians to alert law enforcement officers of sexual or labor exploitation and to receive help for victims. Thousands of state government employees have also taken a trafficking-awareness course during the past year on how to spot abuse.
The number for the state’s human-trafficking hotline is 1-866-ENDHTGA.