(MUNCIE) – An eastern Indiana school district has sent 228 students home to quarantine to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in what appeared to be the largest isolating case among state schools amid the coronavirus outbreak.
The Delaware Community Schools took action after a football player at Delta High School tested positive for the virus several days ago. The school district is aware of only that one case, The Star Press reported Tuesday.
Starting today, Delta Middle School and Delta High School will be closed through Aug. 24 and students will move to e-learning. The district plans to have students return to the schools starting Aug. 25.
It’s the largest student quarantine in the state reported so far, topping the roughly 48 students affected in the Lanesville Community Schools in southern Indiana’s Harrison County.
The Delaware Community Schools quarantine affected 153 students at Delta High School, 68 at Delta Middle School, and seven others at two elementary schools. The district has about 2,600 students.
“Unfortunately, we are in a situation where parents seem to be sending their child/children to school even when they are symptomatic or possibly even when they, as parents, have been tested and are awaiting the results, later to find out they are positive,” Superintendent Reece Mann said in an email.
Delaware Community schools took action after a football player at Delta High School tested positive for the virus several days ago. The school district is aware of only that one case.
Text of message:
IMPORTANT INFORMATION FROM MR MANN
This is Reece Mann, Superintendent of Delaware Community School Corporation. As educators, being able to have students back in our school buildings, in-person, has been an incredible blessing. Not surprisingly, it has also proven to be challenging. As you are aware, we have dealt with a few situations at our middle and high school that have resulted in asking quite a few students to quarantine at home. Fortunately, this has not been true at our elementary schools. Elementary student parents appear to be doing an incredible job of self-screening their children and keeping them home when they are exhibiting symptoms. With over 200 students being excluded from our secondary school buildings, beginning tomorrow, August 12th, Delta Middle School and Delta High School will temporarily cease meeting in person and move to eLearning. Again, Delta Middle and Delta High School students will temporarily NOT meet in-person beginning tomorrow, August 12. Middle and high school students will engage in eLearning through August 24th. Right now, it is our intention for these students to return to school, in-person, on Tuesday, August 25th. We are hopeful that secondary students, and their families, will use this time to get well and work hard to minimize exposure over the next 14 days. Doing so will allow us to be in a better position to successfully begin in-person instruction again on August 25th.Moving forward, we will need the help of all DelCom parents in keeping your children at home if they have COVID-19 related symptoms. Again, elementary students will continue to meet in-person as planned but secondary students will stay home and attend remotely. Besides football at the high school, all athletic events and practices for Delta Middle School and Delta High School will continue but with additional safety measures in place that will go beyond the suggested guidelines from the IHSAA. If your child is currently being quarantined, he/she may not attend sporting events until after the date we provided you in an earlier message. Our Athletic Directors will be coordinating a meeting with all of our coaches tomorrow to discuss these additional measures so all practices tomorrow, August 12th are canceled. More than you know, I appreciate your support as we continue to implement strategies to ensure our student and staff safety.
