NC school district quits most quarantines, contact tracing of COVID cases
Public schools in Union County will significantly curtail coronavirus quarantine requirements and school nurses and staff will not conduct contact tracing in cases where a student or employee has tested positive for COVID-19.
In an 8-1 vote, school board members approved the changes and said the effort will ease the workload of school nurses and staff and get “healthy children” back into the classroom.
Close to 1 of every 6 children in Union County public schools has been forced to stay home over the last two weeks after being potentially exposed to COVID-19. That comes as the district remains one of only three in North Carolina to forgo recommended required masks in classrooms.
The move to eliminate quarantine requirements, which could reduce COVID-19 outbreaks, shocked many parents and the changes took effect immediately.
Against advice of Union County’s health department as well as state and federal recommendations on reducing COVID-19 risks in classrooms, the school district will not require quarantine for students even if they’ve been in contact with someone who is sick. Typically, contact tracing identifies who a sick person may have exposed to the virus and triggers proactive isolation with the goal of breaking the chain of transmission.
Union County Public Schools, under this change, says students must stay home only if they have tested positive or have clear COVID-19 symptoms.
Recently, thousands of students in Union County were in proactive quarantine after being possibly exposed at school. But at the school board’s last regular meeting, several parents expressed anger that their child was showing no symptoms yet was quarantined for 14 days.
“(The students) need to come back,” board member Gary Sides said.
As of the week of Sept. 6 through Sept. 10, 479 positive cases were reported district-wide among students and staff; 7,385 were in quarantine.
Those students are allowed to go back to school as long as they are not on the positive list and are not showing symptoms, Board Chairwoman Melissa Merrell said shortly after the vote.
“(This is effective) immediately,” Merrell said.
Board member John Kirkpatrick was the lone dissenter in the vote. He did not return a request for comment.
Health leaders nationwide have said the return to in-person learning during the pandemic will be safest if students and staff wear masks indoors and if school leaders use contact tracing and quarantine requirements to prevent a small number of cases from growing to an outbreak.
While there’s been vocal support among some families in Union County to keep masks optional, many parents — including some doctors whose children attend public schools — are angry at recent decisions.
“They have been negligent and completely political in their decisions that are affecting our children,” said UCPS parent Susan Shure, who has a child in the district. “There is a complete lack of care, concern or responsibility.”
Shure said she’s considering pulling her child out of school not only because of the board’s decision Monday, but also because there is no mask mandate and in Union County, parents do not have a virtual school option.
“It is more important than ever now (to have a mask mandate) because cases are rising, there are no protective measures (in quarantine and contact tracing),” Shure said.
‘So many other options’
Prior to the vote, Union County Public Health Director Dennis Joyner sent a letter Friday offering further guidance school board members requested at their meeting Sept. 7.
The Observer attempted to reach Joyner on Monday, but his office said his schedule did not allow for availability.
His letter to the school district and board members Friday, however, was in response from the school board requesting additional written guidance. Joyner encouraged the board to refer to the “sound public health guidance” of the StrongSchoolsNC: Public Health Toolkit.
“Without a universal mask requirement in Union County Public Schools, a 14-day quarantine period remains the best option to provide for the protection of student, teachers, staff and members of the community,” the letter said.
Joyner also wrote that he understands a 14-day quarantine can “impose personal burdens that may affect the physical and mental health of persons quarantined” and he was “sympathetic.” He told the board he would not object if it chose a modified quarantined period as spelled out in the state’s toolkit.
“Why not shorten the quarantine for the healthy,” suggested parent Patrick Norris in an interview with the Observer Monday. “It allows for testing and to make sure they aren’t asymptotic. Require a negative test to return after three days not 14. So many other options.”
A letter to parents sent Monday reads: “The Union County Board of Education voted effective immediately, to halt all staff responsibilities regarding contact tracing and quarantining for students and staff, except as required by law. The statutory authority of managing contact tracing and quarantining is that of Union County Public Health. As required by law, school nurses, administrators and school staff will continue to address positive, presumptive or confirmed cases of COVID-19.”
Board member Kathy Heintel said despite the decision, parents need to make sure they’re not sending their children to school sick.
Need for mask mandate grows
Several parents took to social media Monday, calling the board’s decision “disgusting” and “reckless.”
Sarah Miller, who has a child in UCPS, said the board took the wrong lessons from high quarantine numbers and it could have reduced the problem with a mask mandate.
“Nobody has the right to make a choice that infringes on my child’s health and safety,” Miller said. “We have numerous safety laws and regulations (e.g. bike helmets, car seats, seatbelts, smoking bans indoors, etc.) that restrict our choices in the name of protection.”
This week, the Observer obtained letters from students, pleading with the school board to issue a district-wide mask mandate.
“I wish to have masks in school, and I am happy with the people that voted yes to masks,” Cameron Cardarelli, a sixth-grader, wrote. “I’m happy to wear a mask, it doesn’t bother me, I don’t know why it bothers people, it’s just a little piece of cloth or paper.”
And Seth Schwartz, another sixth-grader wrote: “I am sad because I was wearing my mask properly but I had to go home because the person next to me wasn’t wearing a mask and tested positive for COVID-19. I’m not old enough to get a vaccination yet, and now I have to go a whole week without that much instruction just because one person sitting next to me tested positive and wasn’t wearing a mask. ... .I just wish that you would finally mandate masks so more people could be in school.”
This story was originally published September 13, 2021 at 9:05 AM.
