OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma 8th-grader and a Grove teacher are among some of the latest COVID-19 deaths in the public education community, according to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister.
Hofmeister mentioned the deaths while talking about the surge in virus cases Thursday morning as students have returned to classrooms this month.
"The Delta variant is surging through communities and schools are no exception to that," Hofmeister says.
"Many districts are seeing hundreds of positive cases."
The State of Oklahoma still has a ban on mask mandates in place, but some districts have bypassed that ban by giving parents an option to opt their kids out of the requirements.
Hofmeister says 640,000 Oklahoma students are unvaccinated either because they're not old enough to be eligible, or for some other reason.
She says those rules bypassing the mask mandate ban are giving the unvaccinated a "fighting chance" at protecting themselves.
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