A Tennessee teen was mocked by adults at a school board meeting Tuesday night after sharing how his grandmother died from COVID, according to reports.
Grady Knox, a junior at Central Magnet School, was told to “shut up” at a Rutherford County School Board meeting as he shared his personal story on the importance of mask mandates, NBC News reported.
In the now-viral clip of the meeting, Grady explains that after his grandmother died of COVID, he began to fear catching the virus at school and bringing it home to his remaining grandparents.
“They’re higher risk than me, so I don’t want to give them COVID,” Grady said in the video, reported by NBC. “This time last year, my grandmother, who was a former teacher at the Rutherford County school system died of COVID because someone wasn’t wearing a mask.”
Grady is then interrupted by a man, who you can hear in the video, telling him to “shut up,” along with a woman who appears to shake her head and laugh at him, NBC reported.
Grady recalled the incident to WSMV, saying it was “complete insanity.”
“If they laugh at me about a personal story about my grandmother, that’s just disrespectful I feel,” Grady said. “I was shaken a little bit.”
The teen told WSMV he hopes the adults who heckled him don’t serve as a reflection for all the people of Rutherford County.
“As long as I can get my message across, I don’t really think it matters what the crowd thinks of me,” Grady told the network. “Overall, they’re not the ones making the decisions for the school.”
On Thursday night, the school board addressed the issue during a meeting by Bill Spurlock, the county’s director of schools, NBC reported.
“It was pretty devastating what happened to that young man at this meeting,” Spurlock said, reported by NBC. “It’s been all over the news, and I really regret that the young man was treated the way he was. We owe him an apology.”
The board passed a temporary mask mandate that would begin Sept. 13 and continue until Oct. 14, according to NBC.
About the Author
