With at least 12 students testing positive for COVID-19, Maine Township High School District 207 officials this week were asking for greater cooperation from students and parents.
Dozens of students at Maine South High School in Park Ridge were likely exposed to the virus while attending recent parties, school officials said, adding that some parents refused to cooperate with the district’s contact tracing protocols.
The school canceled in-person student orientation events scheduled for sophomores through seniors this week after administrators were informed of “potential COVID exposures to students” during multiple parties that occurred over a four-day period, beginning Aug. 14, an email to parents from Maine South Principal Ben Collins said.
Superintendent Ken Wallace said that, as of Tuesday, at least 12 Maine South students had tested positive for COVID-19. Several of them had attended a very large party in Park Ridge held during the weekend of Aug. 14.
‘Troubling’ response from parents
Contact tracing, which the school was required to undertake by the state health department after some parents notified the school Friday about COVID-19 cases and exposures among students, identified more than 70 students who may have been exposed as a result of the parties, but, according to Wallace, the number could be higher.
“Because we haven’t gotten accurate information from all the families, we’re left with imprecise information,” he said.
The problem, Collins wrote in his email to parents, is that when school personnel reached out to parents as part of the contact tracing process to alert them and determine virus exposure, some parents “either refused to share information or gave us false impressions of what took place.”
In his email, Collins called this response “troubling.”
“If this is the norm, we don’t have a chance (for in-person learning),” Wallace said. “If this is what we have to deal with week to week, trying to run down who is exposed and who is positive, it’s going to be really difficult to maintain any semblance of in-person school and grow it like we want to.”
Currently, the 2020-21 school year in District 207 is beginning remotely, though some on-site events are held, like selected student sports and fine arts activities, as well as the orientations planned for this week.
In order to transition from remote learning to in-classroom learning, schools in District 207 must know if students have tested positive for COVID-19 or been exposed to it, Wallace said. Such information should be reported immediately by calling the student’s school, the superintendent said.
Students and their parents also share the responsibility in protecting themselves from contracting the virus and exposing others, he added.
Behavior outside school impacts ability to hold school
“We have to have accurate information and have the community partner with us,” Wallace said. “That partnership is multi-faceted. It begins with following the rules in school and outside of school, like not sending your kids to parties where social distancing isn’t happening and where (personal protective equipment) isn’t being worn.”
Things that occur outside of school, Wallace said, “absolutely impact our ability to have school.”
In-person orientations were held as scheduled at Maine East High School in Park Ridge and Maine West High School in Des Plaines, where, as of Monday, there had been no reports of students exposed to COVID-19 through large social gatherings, Wallace said.
Phoebe Clark, an incoming sophomore at Maine South, said she was disappointed her class orientation had to be switched from in-person to virtual due to the concerns about COVID-19 exposure.
“I understand we can’t go back to school right away with everything going on, but I was excited to go back for one day,” she said, acknowledging that she hoped to meet some classmates she has not seen in awhile. “To hear it was canceled was super-disappointing because me and most of my peers have been social distancing and wearing masks and it just takes a couple of people to mess it up. And that’s what happened.”
“The most upsetting thing for me was the lack of support the parents were giving the principal, teachers and staff,” added Clark’s mother, Jessica. “They are doing an impossible job and the parents weren’t cooperating.”
District 207 has not set a date for when students and teachers may return to the classroom. A decision on in-person learning will be made based on local COVID-19 positivity rates and the amount of contact students are having with others outside of school, Wallace said.
“If we follow the proper things, if we don’t have a bunch of folks testing positive with widespread contact with others, we might be able to run school,” he said.
Exposure to COVID-19 through social gatherings is also suspected at Loyola Academy, where six students of the private Catholic school in Wilmette tested positive for the virus and another 63 were quarantined this week, school officials said.
The school, which just opened last week, will be closed for two weeks, officials said.
Twitter: @Jen_Tribune
