EDUCATION

Martin County classroom to quarantine after student shows COVID-19 symptoms on Day 2

Sommer Brugal
Treasure Coast Newspapers

MARTIN COUNTY — One day after the School District reopened for in-person learning, one class at SeaWind Elementary School was sent home Wednesday after a student exhibited symptoms commonly associated with COVID-19, district officials confirmed. 

The nine students who were in the classroom will be required to quarantine for 14 days, district spokesperson Jennifer DeShazo said. The other students, she said, were already enrolled in remote learning and will continue doing so from home. 

The teacher — deemed an essential worker by the district — may return to the classroom to live-stream lessons from there, but will maintain a distance from others, DeShazo said. The teacher will be required to stay at home and quarantine if symptoms begin, she said.

One bus route will also pivot to remote learning, meaning the students who rode the bus with the student for one of the past two days will transition to remote learning for 14 days, DeShazo said.

Parents of those students will be notified individually by district staff. The number of students riding the bus was not known by district staff at press time. 

The district does not release the names of teachers and students or specific classrooms citing HIPAA, a medical privacy law.

More:One Martin County student chose remote learning; the other, in-person. Here's how Day 1 went

More:Masks, sanitizer abundant as Martin County students return to schools for first time since March

The student's parents were notified by the school staff, she said.  

Sending students home to quarantine is something district officials anticipated could happen, DeShazo said.

"It's the nature of having in-person school during a pandemic," she said. 

District officials took action "immediately," she said. The school contacted the remaining students' parents or guardians after receiving confirmation from the Health Department the students in the classroom met the criteria for being contacts to a presumed positive case, DeShazo confirmed.

The classroom will be deep cleaned, she said. 

DeShazo encouraged parents to keep their students home if they're not feeling well. It's the best way to mitigate the spread of the virus, she said.

"We don't want students or staff to be sick or ill or have to quarantine," she said, "but we've prepared for it to the best of our ability." 

More:Some non-instructional school employees worry about job security in another COVID shutdown

Sommer Brugal is TCPalm's education reporter for Indian River, St Lucie and Martin counties. You can keep up with Sommer on Twitter @smbrugal and give her a call at 772-221-4231

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