Erika Casher, a white woman who was seen laughing at a student as he spoke about his grandmother's death due to Covid-19, has been fired from her job. The incident took place during a Tennessee school board meeting about implementing mask mandate.
The debate was organized after multiple schools in Tennessee announced that they would be closing in the wake of the rising COVID-19 cases.
Boy's Grandmother Was a Teacher Who Died Due to Covid-19
The video, which has gone viral on the social media, shows a masked boy, Grady Knox, from Rutherford County speaking about why he feels that masks should be worn in the school by both the students and teachers.
"If I get COVID, I'm going to bring it to my family and I talk to my grandparents a lot," the student said. "They're 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," Knox is heard saying.
At this point a maskless woman, dressed in a black dress, sitting on a chair behind him was seen smirking and shaking her head at the statement. The woman was holding a placard which read, "Let our kids smile."
"This is an avoidable issue and by not wearing masks in schools, it's irresponsible. We're killing people. This is not something that we should be doing for the education of our students," the grieving boy goes on to add.
Casher Says Masks Should be Parent's Choice
Soon after the clip surfaced, many social media users identified the smirking woman as Erika Casher, a nurse working with Cigna.
Earlier while speaking with WKRN News, Casher said that making their child wear a mask should be a parent's choice. "I'm concerned about mandating them. I saw that in Williamson County, obviously, they did. COVID obviously is real. As a healthcare provider I'm aware of that," she said. "But, it's been used to take away our individual liberties over the last year."
Soon there were calls demanding the termination of Casher from Cigna. "Hey @cigna, why is your employee Erika Casher laughing at this grieving young man who is 10 times as smart and 10000 times as human as she is? And why is she still your employee? #BoycottCigna," tweeted a user.
"Hey @Cigna what are your thoughts about this woman, Erika Casher, one of your case managers in Tennessee, laughing at a kid telling an audience about the tragic loss of his grandmother due to COVID? Pls respond," wrote another.
However, a tweet made by a user, @NotKel_ fueled the rumors that Casher was fired from her job at Cigna. "Just an update, an acquaintance that works with @Cigna has verified that Erika Casher was fired yesterday," the tweet read. However, there was no statement from Cigna about the same.
