KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Many Knox County School parents are frustrated, angry and keeping their kids at home.
On Monday, parents from across Knox County participated in a "sick-out" protest by keeping their children at home. They're upset there is no mask mandate, lack of social distancing and no contact-tracing.
The move comes after nearly 10,000 Knox County School students missed class last Friday.
"A lot of parents are scared. A lot of teachers are scared. The cases of COVID are skyrocketing. It's alarming," Caroline Mann, a mother who protested as well as kept her kids home from school, said.
More kids are out sick now than at any point last year. For Mann, she just wants the basic measures that the school had in place last year.
She calls the "sick-out" a chance stand up for the educators who can't speak out themselves.
"We want a layered mitigation strategy. This is not all about masking. This is about the other strategies that are proven to work. One thing that we as parents can do, we can stand up for them. They love our kids. We love our teachers," Mann said.
It's not clear how many parents and their children actually participated in the sick-out.
Melissa Cox took a different approach. She sent her kids to school as a way to show the teachers that they're supported.
"I didn't want to communicate to my children that we may disagree with things, but we're just not going to go to school over it," Cox said.
Cox sent emails to teachers and administrators at her children's schools, but calls the situation tough no matter how you look at it.
"There's no winners in this situation, you all are doing the best you can under the circumstances, just like we as parents are, are kind of doing the same thing," Cox said.
With two ways of going about it, and with the same mission, both parents are making sure that safety is the top priority.
"It's not us [versus] them or a one side is right and one side is wrong. We need to come together and just show love and come up with a solution," Cox said.
We reached out to KCS on today's numbers and have yet to receive a response.
The district has called an emergency meeting for the Board of Education this Wednesday in response to the rising numbers.