Coronavirus spreads at Coast private school with masks optional, few quarantines
At least three people at Christian Collegiate Academy in Gulfport have tested positive for COVID-19, emails show, as the school continues to ignore Gov. Tate Reeves’s executive order requiring masks at all schools.
Early last week, Principal Carol Roberts emailed some parents at the small Christian school to tell them a teacher who had been in contact with their child had tested positive for COVID-19.
By the end of the week, a senior who had been in class with that teacher had also tested positive for the virus, Roberts wrote in an email to some parents. On Wednesday, Roberts told some parents about an additional student case.
“If you are receiving this email your child attended class last week with a child that has tested positive for COVID,” she wrote. The student had not been on campus since Friday, she added.
In all three cases, the school administration did not require anyone who had been exposed to stay home from school.
Students and parents told the Sun Herald that few students and faculty at Christian Collegiate are wearing masks.
One high schooler, who did not want to be identified because he fears repercussions from school administrators, said that even during lunch and in chapel, when students sit shoulder to shoulder, almost no one wears a mask.
“Other schools are taking it seriously, but at our school, it’s like I’m going to school on a normal day,” he said.
In emails to parents, Roberts has said it’s not necessary for anyone else to quarantine after exposure unless they display symptoms themselves. In her email announcing the teacher’s positive test, Roberts wrote that students “would have had to be in close contact with the teacher for 15 minutes to be exposed,” and that such contact hadn’t happened.
The high schooler told the Sun Herald that Roberts has told students and parents that “close contact” requires “being in someone’s face” for 15 minutes.
The Centers for Disease Control defines close contact quite differently, as being within six feet of an infected person. The World Health Organization says one reason masks are important is that scientists can’t rule out aerosol transmission, where the virus lingers in the air even after an infected person has moved on, as a way of spreading COVID-19.
Roberts did not respond to an email requesting comment.
Dozens of coronavirus cases have been recorded among students and staff at public schools around the Coast. In many instances, schools have required entire classes to quarantine.
Biloxi High School announced on Monday evening that following 15 positive cases in a student body of 1,700, the school would switch to distance learning for everyone until Sept. 8.
Enforcement issues
Although Reeves routinely uses his press conferences to urge Mississippians to wear masks, he has generally declined to enforce his own executive orders.
When the Sun Herald asked if the governor was monitoring compliance with the mask order at schools, especially private schools, spokesperson Renae Eze said the office was “working with our local officials and law enforcement to ensure compliance.”
“Governor Reeves and our state health experts continue to closely monitor the situation as schools reopen and will step in should a school or district need additional guidance and resources,” Eze said.
Eze did not describe any specific plans to address compliance with the mask mandate at Christian Collegiate. She said the health department is asking people to report concerns to their school board, but as a private school, Christian Collegiate does not fall under the control of a school board.
CCA is accredited by the Mid-South Association of Independent Schools. Leaders of the association did not respond to requests for comment.
Waivers and disclaimers
At the start of the school year, Christian Collegiate required parents to sign a “COVID Waiver of Liability,” which acknowledged that the CDC recommends social distancing, hand washing and “the use of personal protective equipment” to control transmission.
The school could not guarantee children would not be exposed to the virus, the waiver said, and parents could not hold the school responsible if their children were infected.
“I further acknowledge that Christian Collegiate Academy has taken reasonable steps to reduce the spread of the Coronavirus/COVID-19,” the waiver said.
The disclaimer also suggested that anyone who gets sick at school may be to blame for their infection.
“I understand that the risk of becoming exposed to and/or infected by the Coronavirus/COVID-19 may be due to my own actions, omissions, or negligence of myself and others failing to take precautionary measures,” it said.
After the Sun Herald reported that the school was not following Reeves’s executive order, Roberts emailed parents to tell them she was adding “a legal disclaimer to all of our correspondence.”
“It is strictly forbidden to share any part of this message with any third party, without a written consent of the sender,” the disclaimer says.
This story was originally published August 27, 2020 at 5:50 AM.
