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On August 9, over 80 students at Marce Herz Middle School in Reno, Nevada were potentially exposed to COVID-19 after a parent sent a child to school on the first day despite both the child and the parent testing positive for the virus just two days prior.
The following day, August 10, students who were possibly exposed were subjected to learning from home.
Principal Brandon Bringhurst sent a letter home to the parents of the possibly infected children that same day. The statement explained that the children would be able to return to in-person learning on August 17, if they lacked symptoms and tested negative for the virus on or after August 14.
“Out of an abundance of caution and due to possible exposure to COVID-19, your student must be in quarantine at home, per Washoe County Health District guidelines,” Bringhurst’s message stated, according to the Reno Gazette Journal.
Despite the CDC’s public service announcement stating that even vaccinated people can spread COVID’s Delta variant, Bringhurst’s letter said students who were potentially exposed but vaccinated wouldn’t have engaged in the week-long quarantine and could continue in-person learning immediately as long as they could provide proof of their COVID vaccination.
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Washoe County Health District didn’t share the identity of the child or parent. However, health district officials said the parent refused to communicate and that officials would seek cooperation from everyone in the community moving forward.
“We are asking everyone, especially parents with children in Washoe County schools, to please cooperate with disease investigators regarding positive COVID-19 cases,” the health district said in a statement according to the Reno Gazette Journal.
“It’s imperative that we collect information from positive cases in order to reduce transmission in the community,” Washoe County Health District emphasized. A failure to cooperate with fellow community members and organizations that have been trying to combat the virus’ spread only makes returning to normalcy harder for everyone in the county’s scope it further detailed.
“This led to a presumably infectious child attending school two days after being notified of a positive COVID-19 test result. The parent, who also tested positive for COVID-19, also refused to communicate with the school.”
According to CNN, the health district said that it’s not planning to invest its “limited resources” in criminally charging the parent at this time.
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