Thirteen-year-old Mkayla Robinson has died from the coronavirus in Raleigh, Miss., on Aug. 14, according to WJTV. Robinson had been diagnosed just days earlier.
Her mother, Mykel Robinson, described the last time she saw Mkayla alive, and it is heartbreaking. She said that hospital staff was trying to get her to breathe.
“They were pumping the breathing pump thing. It was blood coming out. So, I’m asking like, ‘What’s wrong?’ They said, ‘I got to get stable, I got to get her stable,’” she said. “I touched her, I talked to her, and her pulse came back. I turned and left, she coded again and that’s the last time I saw her.”
Students had just returned to school on Aug. 6, and students were not required to wear masks due to Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves’ refusal to order a mask mandate. The CDC recommended fully vaccinated people wear masks to decrease virus transmission on July 27, but Gov. Reeves called the CDC’s recommendations for mandating masks “foolish.”
After 11 educators and 76 students tested positive for COVID-19 at Robinson’s school, Raleigh High School, they began requiring masks on Aug. 10. However, that was too late for Robinson, who had attended classes most of the week before becoming ill. She had no underlying health conditions and was healthy before contracting COVID-19.
Mkayla’s father, Justin Waddell, wondered why the school was even open, considering how many cases of COVID-19 broke out in the school’s population.
“Why is this school still open? Why is it not an option for these kids to have online schooling? Because I know for sure how I am, and I did everything I can to try to protect my daughter,” he said.
Robinson was a member of the school’s band and was called “the perfect student” by the school’s band director.
“It is with great sadness, and a broken heart, that I announce the passing of one of my 8th grade band students. She was the perfect student. Every teacher loved her and wanted 30 more just like her. Please pray for Raleigh Junior High, the band, and especially the family as they deal with this.—
feeling heartbroken.”
The previous band director at Robinson’s school and his wife died from COVID-19 a few weeks earlier.
