Student heckled for saying grandmother died of COVID-19 because someone didn't wear mask

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — "...I’m worried about my family. If I get COVID, I’m going to bring it to my family, and I talk to my grandparents a lot. They are higher risk than me, so I don’t want to give them COVID.

"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."

Tennessee High schooler Grady Knox's passionate plea for the health of himself and others was mocked earlier this week at a Rutherford County Board of Education meeting, a scene which has drawn national attention to this hyper-divisive debate.

Knox was ridiculed, even laughed at, Tuesday evening by some in the school board meeting audience when he said his grandmother died of COVID-19 after being exposed to a person without a mask.

Knox was among the seven students who asked the Rutherford County Board of Education to require masks. Six of the students represented Central Magnet School, which serves high achievers in downtown Murfreesboro.

Knox: "This is going to continue if we don’t have a mask mandate. Contact tracing has been a big issue for students this year because all of us know that if we get contact traced we’re going to miss at least a week of school. That’s a week of instruction, a week of teacher contact that we’re going to miss.

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Knox remained calm while getting heckled. His composure impressed his father, Kerry Knox, a Murfreesboro attorney, who had a sense of disbelief that a crowd would act like that to a child.

"I wanted to defend him but he handled it so much better than I could have," said the father.

Knox's grandmother lived at Adams Place retirement community in Murfreesboro before she died of COVID-19.

Prior to that, she retired from a career as an English teacher at Oakland High, Kerry Knox said.

The board's indecision on changing the policy followed a three-hour debate that included hearing a few dozen speeches from people on both sides of the mask issue in a packed meeting room.

Knox: "I talked to one of my classmates today, and he said that he was worried about a test that he had to take because he had missed the entire last week of school and hadn’t seen his math teacher until that day. This is not something that we want to be going on in our schools."

Some of the people against masks heckled and laughed at Knox to interrupt his speech while others defended him. This video recorded moment went viral as national media outlets shared the story.

Knox initially talked about students missing out on instruction days because of the COVID-19 spread before he mentioned his concerns for his family's health.

Grady: 'We're killing people'

Knox stopped for a few seconds when the audience heckling occurred before board Chairman Coy Young spoke.

"Hey guys, we’re here to act professional," Young said before Knox continued.

"This is an avoidable issue, and by not wearing masks in schools, it’s irresponsible. We’re killing people. This is not something we should be doing for the education of our students. Thank you."

Knox was part of a group of six Central Magnet School students organized by classmate Will Severn to speak.

Grady and other speaking students impress board vice chairwoman

Knox also impressed board vice chairwoman Tiffany Johnson. She recalled hearing one man in the crowd speaking in the direction of Knox:

“Oh come on son. That’s not true.”

Johnson said Knox demonstrated maturity and professionalism, unlike some of the antimasking audience members interrupting him.

"At that moment," Johnson said, "those people should have have been removed from the meeting."

Johnson recalled looking at the Rutherford County Sheriff's deputies in hopes they'd remove the hecklers.

"It was deeply troubling," Johnson added.

The deputies had earlier provided a security escort to the parking lot for two local pediatricians who recommended the board approve a temporary mask mandate. The escort was to prevent them from being threated the way medical professionals were at a Williamson County Board of Education meeting, the vice chairwoman said.

Johnson was also pleased by what all the students had to say.

"I love to hear from our kids," Johnson said. "They were eloquent. They were concise. They were vulnerable."

Reach reporter Scott Broden with news tips on Twitter @ScottBroden.

This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: Teen mocked at school board meeting during COVID mask plea