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If you were to roll out a map of Tennessee and watch the counties light up as the schools

opened and closed over the last year, it would look like a series of blinking twinkle

lights, schools opening their doors, then slamming them shut as the coronavirus spread.

With this map, it would gradually get brighter and brighter, except for one spot. Shelby County,

Memphis Public Schools, which were closed for nearly an entire year.

And as time went on, Shelby County Schools became the last district in Tennessee to not

offer any sort of in-person option.

Laura Faith Cabeta has been following the Shelby County Schools for chalk bead. I wanted

to talk to her about what's been happening there because the saga over how to make schools

COVID safe in this particular city. It differs ever so slightly from the conversation about

making schools safe other places.

There's just so many different perspectives there, and it's not as black and white as I

think the reopening debate has been framed nationwide.

Around the country, the fight over reopening schools has pitted parents against teachers

and unions against school boards. In Tennessee, it's pitted Republicans who control the state

against Democrats who control the cities.

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