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An elementary school in California is dealing with a COVID outbreak that sickened eight students. School officials said that outbreak was caused by one student whose parents knowingly sent them to school for seven days even though they tested positive for the virus.
Officials at Neil Cummins Elementary School notified parents when they learned of the child's positive test and told 75 students they would have to quarantine. They said they were notified of the child's positive test by the Marin County Department of Public Health when officials reached out to see why the child was not added to the school's database.
School officials took immediate action and sent a text message to parents, telling them their kids had been exposed and asking them to bring their children to the school's gym so they could get tested for COVID-19 before returning to the classroom.
Larkspur-Corte Madera School District Superintendant Brett Geithman urged parents to follow the COVID guidelines and work with officials to prevent the virus from spreading.
"I understand that there is pandemic fatigue, but we continue to live with these universal rules that when there is a COVID positive, they must quarantine," Geithman said, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. "This situation we experienced at Neil Cummins posed great risk to a school of unvaccinated children, some of which have health compromised conditions, and the staff that cares for our students each and every day."
Health officials said that the parents could face misdemeanor charges.
"Our enforcement team is evaluating the circumstances and will respond accordingly, "Marin County Public Health said in a statement. "Thankfully, this is the only known occurrence of a household knowingly sending a COVID-19 positive student to school."