An Oklahoma school district released an apology Sunday after dealing with scathing backlash for publishing an image of a football celebration showing students and athletes neither using masks nor social distancing.
” Jenks Public Schools acknowledges and accepts this criticism. There were a lot of high school trainees without masks and too many high school students in close contact with one another,” Jenks Public Schools wrote in a Facebook post. “This is not the sort of safe environment JPS seeks to develop for trainees and employee.”
The post continued, “JPS comprehends the value of social distancing and masks. At future secondary occasions, Jenks Public Schools pledges to do more to keep more stringent security procedures. The lack of safety protocols at the state national championship was not up to the standard that is expected. Jenks Public Schools and Jenks High School best regards excuses this mistake.”
The apology provided on Sunday comes a day after the school’s Facebook page showed an image of students and professional athletes celebrating a recent success, seemingly oblivious to mitigation efforts versus the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The post on Saturday featured 4 photos revealing gamers, coaches, staff, cheerleaders and trainees crowded together on the field and in the stands, with really few masks in sight.
After posting the photo on Saturday, the school faced harsh backlash, with numerous members of the neighborhood slamming the school for allowing the celebration to go on in the middle of increasing cases, deaths and hospitalizations related to COVID-19
” Extremely selfish,” one Facebook user composed, while another comment read, “Their health care employees are overwhelmed, exhausted and some passing away, however let’s fill the stadium for a super-spreader video game!
Rodin Eckenroth/Getty
While speaking with the Daily Monster, Elise Ramsey, a 22- year-old alum of Jenks High School and a current trainee at the University of Tulsa, said, “Health professionals have been publicly begging the neighborhood to do whatever we can to slow spread for a number of weeks now,” including that she was “horrified” by the post.
Jenks Public Schools directed Newsweek to the apology provided on Sunday and said it had no more remark at this time.
According to the health department of Tulsa County, where Jenks lies, there are presently more than 36,000 verified COVID cases, along with at least 289 deaths, in the county. Oklahoma does not have a statewide mask mandate in place, but a number of counties, including Tulsa, have actually imposed citywide mask mandates amid the ongoing pandemic.
Newsweek reached out to the health department for remark but did not receive a reaction in time for publication.
COVID cases and deaths have actually continued to increase throughout Oklahoma. Information from the state’s health department shows more than 218,000 verified cases and at least 1,911 deaths.
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