COVID-19 cases at a Roseville high school force hundreds of students to quarantine
Hundreds of Roseville-area students were sent home to quarantine for 14 days after five students tested positive last week for COVID-19.
Oakmont High School reported five students and one staff member tested positive for COVID-19 between Jan. 11 and Jan. 17. The positive tests forced 211 students and eight staff members to isolate at home.
Several other students tested positive the week prior, forcing 100 other students to quarantine.
The situation has happened across Roseville Joint Union High School District, where students have been learning on campus since the the fall: 157 Roseville High School students were quarantined, and 113 Woodcreek High School students were quarantined.
Roseville High School temporarily returned entirely to distance learning for a week because of an increase in COVID-19 cases. About 30 staff members, including 18 teachers, had to quarantine because of exposure.
The district quarantines any student or staff for 14 days if they have been exposed to a person who tests positive for COVID-19, according to their quarantine protocol. The policy states that a school nurse interviews the person using a question protocol, determining the class size, number of students in class, physical location of the identified case and how ventilated the classroom was.
“The county health case manager determines if quarantine protocol should be applied in excess of a six-foot radius and how many should be quarantined from that incident report,” read the document.
Interim Superintendent Jess Borjon told The Sacramento Bee that the district will continue 14-day quarantines as officials cannot ensure that students are self-isolating for the last four days, per state guidance dating back to December.
But the state’s new guidance recommends a 10-day quarantine for exposed students. Borjon said he acknowledged there have been contradictions between changing policies, and until the district receives clear guidance, it will continue to implement 14-day quarantines.
But some families say they are too strict, forcing their healthy children out of the classroom for too long.
Lindsay Frazer, a parent in the district, said she believes the quarantine protocols vary district by district in Placer County, and are now outdated based on what public health officials have learned about the virus.
“How is that effective?” Frazer said of the 14-day quarantine.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has since reduced the number of days required to quarantine to seven-to-10 days without testing “if no symptoms have been reported during daily monitoring.”
Parents took to social media to complain that they tested their quarantined children, received notice that results were “negative” for COVID-19, but Roseville Joint Union High School District does not allow students back on campus before the 14-day quarantine was over.
Megan Blue, a librarian at Woodcreek and Oakmont high schools, said the quarantine is in place to ensure all students and staff return without transmitting COVID-19, and a 10-day quarantine could work.
“Using a negative test to come back is not safe due to the incubation period,” Blue said, citing how many people test negative from COVID-19 tests taken too early, and later show symptoms of the virus.
“Our site administrators are working above and beyond to not quarantine entire classes,” Blue said. “They are measuring the space between and around students, using seating charts, etc. to minimize the impact. The reality is that we have kids in classrooms with poor ventilation and very little social distancing. Our district has done their very best to protect students and staff.”
This article was updated at 8:59 a.m. on Jan. 22 to include comments from interim Superintendent Jess Borjon.
This story was originally published January 21, 2021 at 11:55 AM.