State rep. creates whistleblower email for coronavirus, school concerns

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A Georgia lawmaker said she wants to hear from students, teachers and administrators with safety concerns in their schools surrounding the coronavirus.

Channel 2′s Mike Petchenik was in North Fulton County, where Gwinnett and North Fulton Rep. Beth Moore (D - Peachtree Corners) said her email has blown up since yesterday.

Moore said she was so incensed by the suspension of a Paulding County high school student this week after she shared photos of crowded hallways that she wanted a way for people to blow the whistle without fear of retribution.

“When I see an instance where somebody who is trying to help gets punished, I can’t sit by and see that happen without some kind of solution that I can propose,” Moore said.

Earlier this week, we showed you images of a crowded hall at North Paulding High School with very few students wearing masks.

The principal initially suspended student Hannah Watters after she posted the video, but later rescinded that suspension after public pressure.

“I took the photo initially after seeing the first day of school photo taken by someone else go online as well and got picked up by some media coverage,” Watters said. “And I took it out of mostly concern and nervousness.”

Moore created the email, reportmyschool@gmail.com, so people can report issues anonymously.

“What I gather from all of this is there is a lot of fear and frustration out there and without a central repository for this information, it felt very helpless,” Moore said. “I hope by creating this whistleblower e-mail, people will know there’s at least one person out there listening.”

Moore said in just 24 hours, she's received numerous emails from a lot of different sources.

She said that originally, counties planned to focus on contact tracing, but that plans seems to have gone out the window. Moore said that sounds like there really is no plan.

“If we speak up, we can effect change,” Moore said. “That’s what I’m hoping to do with this.”

Paulding Co. principal threatens punishment for students who share school pics on social media We’ve learned that staff told students they could be punished but only after a photo went viral on social media.

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