A Snapchat message making rounds urges others to hide COVID-19 symptoms
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Chandler, AZ (KPHO/KTVK) — Parents in the east Valley are concerned about a message going around on social media urging people to hide positive COVID-19 tests and not report it if they’re sick.
Some parents say they’ve been hearing about other families having that mentality. “In the mom community, moms are talking about. Parents are talking about it. That is 100% happening,” said Andrea Rumsey, a mom of two high school students within the Chandler Unified School District.
On Tuesday, a screen grab of a Snapchat was making the rounds on social media. It started by saying “I’m asking this on behalf of all athletes at Basha. Please for the love of god if you get covid or have symptoms don’t report it because if you report it it skrews (sic) everyone around you.”
“That’s not smart. It’s definitely dangerous. That will just cause an outbreak and it just won’t end well at all,” said Brandon Ewing, who graduated from Basha High School in 2019. “I feel like it’s pretty risky right now to be playing sports out there with COVID, especially if you’re doing it without anyone knowing. So I think right now it would be best to let it go and come back to it in the spring when stuff clears up.”
Rumsey’s daughter, Miranda, said she’s heard student athletes at her school also talking about hiding symptoms or tests so she wasn’t surprised to hear about the Snapchat going around–just disappointed. Her sister, Maddie, says something has to change.
“It’s just going to get worse and worse if we don’t. If people don’t start taking the steps everyone is saying we have to, there’s going to be no improvement,” said Maddie.
The Snapchat also says, “unless you are high risk there is no reason to report it, nothing bad will happen to you just please think about the athletes.”
“We are going to see teachers dying. I mean, that is what is going to happen. When people are saying, ‘I want to play football,’ I want all the teachers that I know and love to stay alive,” Andrea said. “Those people are making sacrifices every single day and our families are saying we want to be in school but they don’t want to take the precautions, they don’t want to be honest of who’s sick and who’s not. And this sick kills people, and that’s the reality.”
A spokesperson for Chandler Unified School District sent a statement saying, “We encourage all families to keep students home when they have COVID or are being tested for COVID.”
A letter was also sent to parents:
“Although our individual school data is positive overall, we cannot let our guard down as the trends change quickly and exponentially. Students and parents understand and are committed to comply with the mitigation strategies. There are exceptions where individuals have overlooked mitigation strategies thereby placing at-risk the health of students, staff and community members as well as continued in-person learning. Students have been sent to school with symptoms or while awaiting test results. Students have attended gatherings outside of school, contracted the virus, and then returned to school exposing their classmates. These situations are avoidable. The pandemic has presented us with so many factors outside of our control. We need 100% cooperation to influence what we can control.”
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