Parents of a 10-year-old girl in Virginia who succumbed due to COVID-19 complications claim that her teacher exposed her to the virus by assigning her to accompany sick students to the nurse’s office, the Daily Beast Reported.
Anthonette Ward, a spokesperson for Suffolk Public Schools, told The Virginian-Pilot that school authorities are now investigating the assertions saying that if proven true, the teacher’s move will be considered a violation of school policy.
Ward added that the school has a rule established that only adults should accompany children who are showing COVID-19 symptoms to the nurse’s office.
Parents Say Teresa Escorts Sick Children
The fifth-grader at Hillpoint Elementary School, Teresa Sperry, died last week, five days after she first had a headache. According to the Pilot, health officials informed the family that Teresa tested positive for COVID-19 two days after her death.
Her parents said that they followed all safety measures to avoid getting the virus and they even drive their kids to school just to reduce exposure to COVID-19 on the school bus.
But Teresa’s parents claim that her teacher habitually asked Teresa to escort sick children to the nurse’s office.
According to Jeff Sperry via the Pilot, it was her daughter’s classroom job.
Teresa’s parents first revealed the claims via Facebook, writing “would have continued to be here if people would have stopped sending their sick kids to school. Her teacher at Hillpoint gave her the job of ‘nurse.’ She was required to walk all sick students in her class to the nurses’ office.”
Nicole also said that the school district announced the news by sending out letters to parents but did not offer a phone call to their families.
School Officials Response To The Allegations
School officials quickly responded to the allegations.
“The protocol at Hillpoint Elementary School is for the classroom teacher or any adult to contact the main office with a Code ‘C.’ When this occurs, one of the administrators or school nurse will come to the classroom to pick up the student,” Ward told the Pilot.
“We are still investigating to ensure that this process was followed with fidelity.”
Couple Hopes Incident Is A ‘Wake-up Call’
Over the weekend, in a CNN interview, the couple said they hoped that the incident that happened would be a wake-up call to people that the pandemic is still very real while some people still ignore the threat of the virus.
