This is a modified version of a letter I sent to a school board member expressing concerns about how an outbreak of coronavirus has been handled at our son’s elementary school. There were two confirmed cases in his class. Sunday morning we found out he was the third positive case in the class. Incidentally as of this writing we have yet to be informed from the school or teacher that there is a third confirmed case. I suspect now that the class has gone to online learning, parents will not know about this third case, or the others that I am afraid are inevitable. It is this concern that forces me to write.
Wednesday night we received a call from a health official with the school district informing us of the first positive case. Expecting to hear that the class would be cancelled immediately we were surprised to learn that, upon consultation with the Ellis County Health department, the determination was made that there were not close enough contacts to justify closing the classroom. We went back and looked at the protocols the school had distributed before school started and concluded this action was not consistent with those protocols. We decided to hold our son out of school on Thursday, even though we called the school Principal, nurse and teacher and received mostly nervous assurance and were told that if our son was not symptomatic he should return to school. On Thursday our son developed a cough, head congestion, a slight fever and a sore throat. He went to the doctor Friday morning and he was tested for COVID. We found out Sunday morning the test was positive.
Saturday afternoon we were told the decision had been made to send the class to remote learning for two weeks, which we were happy about, but wished that decision had been made two days earlier. Let me be clear, we do not blame the school for our son getting COVID. We knew this was a possibility when we sent him back to school in August. We thought the school had a good plan and were reassured by the mask wearing and some of the other protocols that were put in place. Unfortunately, they were not all followed.
Our concerns are the decision to continue class, and most specifically the decision to rely on the Ellis County Health Department in making this decision, and the communication and transparency, or lack thereof from the school and district. The reason I am concerned with the school’s reliance on the county is that instead of giving health advice, the Ellis County Public Health director has appeared at public meetings of both the County and City commissions and said that while masks help, a mandate would not work and should not be implemented because people do not follow direction when they are dictated to. This is not medical advice.
Given how flippant and dismissive Ellis County Commissioners have been about mask mandates, shut down orders, testing and all other related issues, it is not surprising County staff would likewise downplay the virus and the response thereto. To be clear, I know USD 489 cannot control who the county commissioners or the county health officer is or how they perform their duties. I do think the district can be more proactive and listen to others when it has become clear Ellis County has no desire to act transparently or with a clear intent to protect the public.
For instance, I have tracked testing and results numbers through the state’s website that publishes information counties report. Here are the statistics dating back to August:
Week of 8/9: 13 positive tests; 3.16% positive rate; 412 total tests
8/16: 86 positive tests; 13.83% positive rate; 622 total tests
8/23: 196 positive tests; 28.12% positive rate; 697 total tests
8/30: 195 positive tests; 17.15% positive rate; 1,137 total tests
9/6: 72 positive tests, 12.44% positive rate; 579 total tests
9/13: 55 positive tests, 22.18%; 248 total tests.
When you read the County’s much-touted pandemic plan you learn that transitioning to Phase 1 requires an upward trajectory of documented cases over a 14-day period. That certainly occurred between August 9 and August 23. The threshold for entering Phase 2, where a mask mandate would be recommended, is an upward trajectory of documented cases for at least 14 days after entering Phase 1. Ellis County was two cases away from having an upward trajectory on August 30, and then there was a drastic decrease in the number of positives and tests for the week of 9/6 and then another approximately 50 percent reduction in tests last week.
Is the number of tests that are conducted based on the percentage rate of positive tests, understanding that more testing does indeed reveal more positive cases? Was testing stopped after the 1,137th test in the week of 8/30 so that there would not be a third straight week of upward trajectory of positive results or were positives for that week reported in the following week? Is there any public health explanation for having 1100 tests, 550 tests, and then 250 tests in consecutive weeks? These are questions that I think should be answered.
Again, I realize the School District is a separate entity from the County and its health department. But given how the county has consistently downplayed the virus, it concerned us the district and its schools are relying on the County. Out of parents of schoolchildren alone I’m sure a panel of knowledgeable and well-intentioned health professionals can be assembled across the district to study this matter and make recommendations. If by law the district must consult with the county then at least I would suggest that consultation be taken “with a grain of salt.”
My other concern is communication and transparency. I understand HIPAA, but that shouldn’t be used to allow people to get hurt, and it has exceptions for public health emergencies. We were “told”, after the consultation between the school and the county, that our child did not have sufficient contacts with the first positive case to require him to quarantine. After speaking with our son, we concluded that information was incorrect and we decided to keep him home from school, against the advice of the “experts.”
I fear the response to the virus is not being managed in order to keep people safe; it is being managed to protect elected officials and to keep people from complaining. That is not the job of the Ellis County Health Department or USD 489. Parents and community members should be given information necessary to protect themselves and their families.
Todd Powell