Dedication? Parents keep sending Covid positive child to school for a week
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As soon as the school was made aware of this case, they hurried to alert and test everyone who had come in contact with the student — primary or secondary
A family decided to send their child to school even after they were aware that their kid had tested positive for coronavirus. This carelessness resulted in putting several other children’s lives in danger.
Parents of an elementary student continued to send the child to school for seven days after the student had tested positive for COVID-19, Dr. Brett Geithman, superintendent of Larkspur-Corte Madera School District in Marin County, told CNN.
A student of Neil Cummins Elementary School in Corte Madera, near San Francisco, the student’s attendance in school resulted in 75 other students having to quarantine from November 19.
The school authorities got to know about the positive case only when the Marin County Public Health contacted the authorities to make sure the case was registered in the company’s database.
"In this case both the school and public health were given inaccurate information by the parents, which led to a prolonged interval of exposure." Dr. Matt Willis, Marin County's public health officer, told CNN.
Public health departments make sure that the laboratories inform them about all new infections. The authorities then follow up with concerned school authorities to make sure the infected students are following the necessary quarantine protocols.
It was when the authorities were following this process, when this violation was caught and reported. "This is not only a violation of basic ethics, it's a violation of law." Willis told CNN. "Violation can lead to a fine or criminal prosecution as a misdemeanor. Because of the seriousness of this violation we've referred the case to the District Attorney."
"We did not know this positive case existed." Superintendent Brett Geithman said in a written statement to CNN. "Upon calling the household, we learned that the student tested positive, did not inform the schools, and then sent the student and their sibling to school for seven days."
As soon as the school was made aware of this case, they hurried to alert and test everyone who had come in contact with the student — primary or secondary. The principal arranged testing for the nearly 50 students, 10 staff members and other people on the morning of 19th in the school gym.
"They've since issued apology letters to me, the principal, and the teachers involved and recognized their lack of judgement," Geithman told CNN. "This is a community that takes Covid protocols very seriously and acts on it. This is a one-off where a family made a terrible decision that impacted many students and comprised the health and safety of our schools."