Tennessee teen opens up about his late Covid grandmother heckled by adults at school board meeting

A teenager from Tennessee who was mocked by adults as he defended the masks by explaining that his grandmother died of Covid-19 called the moment “complete insanity”.

Grady Knox, a junior at Central Magnet School, was mocked and yelled at a lecture at a Rutherford County School Board meeting on Tuesday night. A clip of the moment took to social media, showing adults telling the teenager to “shut up” as he told a personal story to relay his point of view in favor of mask warrants.

Knox told the council he feared he would be infected at school and take the coronavirus home to his grandparents.

“They are a higher risk than me, so I don’t want to give them Covid,” Knox said. “Around this time last year my grandmother, who was a former teacher in the Rutherford County School System, died of Covid because someone was not wearing a mask. “

A man in the background could be heard telling Knox to “shut up,” and a woman in the background appeared to be laughing at him, according to the video at the moment.

Knox told NBC affiliate WSMV that he couldn’t believe the incident and that it was “utter madness.”

“If they laugh at me about a personal story about my grandmother, it’s just disrespectful that I feel,” Knox said. “I was a bit shaken up.”

He added that he hopes those viewing the video understand that the people of Rutherford County are not defined by the adults who heckled him.

“As long as I can get my point across, I don’t really think what the crowd thinks of me matters,” Knox said. “On the whole, they are not the ones who make the decisions for the school.

The school board addressed the issue in a meeting Thursday night by Bill Spurlock, principal of county schools.

“It was pretty devastating what happened to this young man at that meeting,” Spurlock. “It made the headlines and I really regret that the young man was treated the way he was. We owe him an apology.

A temporary mask term that would begin September 13 and run through October 14 was passed by the board in a vote Thursday night. The approved motion provided for the possibility of terminations if the county’s positivity rate fell below 10% for three consecutive weeks.