A high school student in Oklahoma knowingly went to school with coronavirus
An Oklahoma high school student exposed 17 other students to coronavirus after attending school with a positive diagnosis.
The unnamed student at Westmoore High School in Oklahoma City attended the first day of school on August 13 after testing positive for coronavirus. An anonymous tipster quickly told school officials about the student’s status, Dawn Jones, director of communications and community relations for Moore Public Schools, told CNN.
Jones said school officials were later told that because the student was asymptomatic, the student assumed their quarantine should only last five days, though the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends asymptomatic patients quarantine for 10 days. Jones did not say when the student tested positive.
The student’s parent told school officials they had misunderstood the information they received from physicians, Jones said.
The student has reentered quarantine and once confirmed to have no symptoms at the end of quarantine, they can return to school, she said.
No staff were exposed to the student with coronavirus, Jones said. And without the school’s social distancing guidelines, many more of Westmoore High’s 2,500 students could have been exposed.
Moore Public Schools gave its 25,000 students the option to enroll in distance learning for the semester, attend classes in-person or attend classes both in-person and online. Masks are required for high school students while at school and on school buses, and classrooms and bathrooms are cleaned daily.
Schools across the country that have reopened have found themselves in similar situations with coronavirus-positive students. A number of students were diagnosed with coronavirus after the first day of school in several states, including Mississippi and Georgia. A child in Indiana was sent to school before their coronavirus test results returned.
