Fully vaccinated Texas teacher and one junior student died of Covid-19 complications last week in Richardson, ISD confirmed
Richardson, TX – Despite the fact that the Delta wave is slowly losing its spreading pace across Texas, last week was fatal for one fully vaccinated Richardson teacher and one junior student, the Richardson ISD officials confirmed.
According to the latest reports, Sha’Niyah “Nienie” McGee, a junior at Berkner High School, and Eroletta Piascyk, a teacher at the Christa McAuliffe Learning Center, both passed away the district announced on Monday.
“Both Nienie and Eroletta were highly cherished members of our RISD family and they will be fondly remembered and missed by their classmates and fellow teachers,” the district said in a statement.
The teacher followed all the recommendations from the health officials and she has been fully vaccinated and most recently she had received her third, booster shot of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Reportedly, she has been teacher for more than 20 years.
“She had been in the hospital, but was expected to do better and so it was just a sudden shock we lost her when we did,” said Dr. Jeannie Stone, RISD Superintendent.
The student was described as “kind and respectful.” Her vaccination status remains unknown, but Stone confirmed that she has been out of school for several weeks before passing away. She is the first ever student to die as a result of Covid-19 complications in the Dallas area.
A moment of silence was held at RISD’s board of education meeting Monday night for the two.
“We send our condolences to these families and observe this moment of silence in their honor,” Stone said.
Following their deaths, the Richardson ISD once again discussed potential Covid-19 measures across the schools especially the most commented one, the mask mandate. However, the parents are still divided over mask mandate in schools.
“I had notes that I was going to share — and then we had a moment of silence for the student and teacher who recently passed away and I’m still a little shaky about it. I do not want to have to imagine a world in which that becomes the norm and the list gets longer,” one speaker said.
“I don’t care what your view is on the efficacy of masks, whether they work, whether they don’t or whether you think you have the authority to mandate them. The fact is, as we stand here today — you don’t. And you’re violating the law by doing so,” another speaker said.