High School shifting to remote start after student party

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    SUDBURY, Mass. (WCVB) — The principal of Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School has informed families that the school year will start remotely after dozens of students recently partied together.

Bella Wong, who is also the superintendent of the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional School District, said that she learned that a crowded student party involving alcohol and a “complete lack” of COVID-19 safety precautions was held Friday night.

According to Wong, police who were called to the scene estimated that 15 students ran into the woods while 13 of the 32 names they collected ended up being fake. That means at least 28 students who were at the party are unaccounted for.

Because there are students at the party who were unidentified, the Sudbury Board of Health is mandating that all high school students must undergo full remote learning for 14 days from the night of the party.

The district had planned on a hybrid learning model for high school students at the start of the 2020-21 academic year.

“I agree completely with the Board of Health that this is the most prudent course of action to take given what has taken place,” Wong wrote in her letter. “After the intensity of hard work and planning that has been done to be able to start school with students in-person, we are profoundly disappointed at this sudden change of plans. I know you must be as disappointed.”

Under the assumption that the students at the party were most likely juniors and seniors, Wong asked members of the Sudbury Board of Health if freshmen and sophomores could learn partially in-person. That request was denied because younger students could have been at the party, or they could be siblings of older students.

Wong said the Academic Council and Learning Continuity Committee met with her Saturday afternoon to immediately adjust the back-to-school plan. High school students will follow the same schedule but will follow the hybrid schedule remotely.

School officials plan on returning to the hybrid in-person model on Sept. 29, according to Wong.

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