COVID-19 infections are spiking after high school dances in Sacramento. Is prom safe?
Will you go to prom with me?
Not if you have COVID.
At least six Sacramento-area schools have reported significant upticks in COVID-19 infections within two weeks of holding large school dance events.
Outbreaks are occurring throughout the state. The case rate is two or three times compared to one month ago. Last month, a Bay Area high school reported 90 virus cases after about 600 students went to prom.
“I think it’s multi-factorial,” said professor and chief of pediatric infectious disease at UC Davis Health Dr. Dean Blumberg, who said dances have the potential to become super spreader events. “People are so tired of the distancing. People are out and about more, and some are doing more activities.”
Meanwhile, many more proms and senior dances are scheduled for the weeks ahead, with some falling just a couple of weeks before those seniors are supposed to don caps and gowns and receive diplomas.
If dances are spurring outbreaks or clusters of coronavirus cases, that brings up an uncomfortable scenario for Sacramento teens: Will students miss their high school graduation ceremonies and other year-end celebrations because they got sick at prom?
Five high schools, one K-8 see COVID spike
Sacramento City Unified School District officials earlier this week confirmed 50 recent positive cases at C.K. McClatchy High School. Of those students, 21 attended junior prom on April 23, according to district spokesman Alexander Goldberg, though that does not mean all 21 contracted the virus at prom.
Goldberg said Sacramento City Unified could not definitively determine where the recent transmission happened, due to “high numbers of overlapping social and school contacts.”
At least five other schools that held large dance events the same weekend as McClatchy have experienced a spike in virus cases on nearly the same timeline. Officials at one of those schools, however, said contact tracing has not linked cases to its dance events.
Rio Americano High School held its “spring fling” on April 23 – the same Saturday as McClatchy’s junior prom – as well as a prom for Rio Americano’s independent living skills program students on April 22.
The Arden Arcade campus this week had 27 active coronavirus cases among students and eight among staff members, according to a Thursday afternoon update from San Juan Unified, by far the most among schools in the district.
“Out of the 24 current student positive cases (through Wednesday), 12 of the students did attend the spring fling, however it is difficult to determine where transmission occurred for these cases,” San Juan Unified spokeswoman Raj Rai said in a written message. Three more cases were confirmed Thursday; it is unclear whether those students attended the dance.
In Natomas, Heron School put on a “sock hop” for grades 5-8, also April 22. The school by the middle of this week had 28 active COVID-19 cases among students plus one in a staff member – by far the highest total among Natomas Unified campuses.
Another 104 Heron School students were in home quarantine, the district said in a Tuesday update to its COVID-19 data tracker. The K-8 school has about 1,100 students, meaning about one-in-eight recently contracted or were exposed to coronavirus.
District officials said that no students tested positive as a result of the dance, according to the district’s contact tracing and the timelines of positive cases.
Folsom Cordova Unified School District in a Wednesday update reported 18 active student cases at Vista del Lago High School, and 13 student cases plus three staff cases at Folsom High.
Vista Del Lago held senior ball on April 23, and Folsom High had a Sadie Hawkins dance April 22. Cordova High, which did not host a recent dance and has about 200 more students than Vista del Lago, had six active cases.
Sheldon High School had 15 active virus cases Thursday, its highest caseload since mid-February, according to the Elk Grove Unified data tracker. Sheldon held its senior ball on April 23, and had spring break in March.
Elk Grove Unified spokeswoman Xanthi Soriano in an emailed response said that of cases reported since April 23, fewer than half are seniors, “but we have no data noting if those students had attended a prom.” Soriano said that based on contact tracing information, three students “could have been infected on April 23” based on when they developed symptoms.
High school ‘rites of passage’
The current prom season is the first in three years to proceed without significant health restrictions.
In spring 2020, coronavirus protocols were at their strictest point to date. Last year, virus numbers were in a lull during spring, but state health restrictions kept masking and social distancing mandatory. Some proms proceeded as drive-throughs.
Victoria Flores, the student support and health services director at Sacramento City Unified, in a prepared statement this week regarding the McClatchy outbreak called prom events “rites of passages for our students.”
“With the mental health impact of the pandemic — these types of extra-curricular events typically bring hope and joy for those attending and engaging,” Flores wrote. “As COVID remains a concern, this is the balance we continue to weigh.”
That balance is being constantly recalibrated, though, as COVID-19 numbers escalate across most of California.
The statewide daily case rate has grown to 12.4 per 100,000 residents, the California Department of Public Health reported Tuesday, for a 118% increase since April 1. Sacramento County’s case rate rose from 4.0 per 100,000 on April 1 to 10.3 per 100,000 on April 30, according to the local health office.
With those rates still on an incline, risk may be higher at upcoming school dances than at the ones from April.
“We are seeing an uptick in cases in general and we have seen an uptick in cases and outbreaks being reported by schools in recent weeks,” Sacramento County health office spokeswoman Samantha Mott said in an emailed statement.
Mott said the county advises school districts following recommendations from state health officials “when planning larger events such as dances, sporting events, and graduations.”
Sacramento parent concerned about COVID testing
Beth Campbell, who has a 9th-grader at Kit Carson International Academy, said she is concerned that school officials are not checking for vaccination status or negative COVID-19 tests at entry to events like dances.
Her child tested positive for COVID-19 on May 3, more than a week after the Kit Carson dance, which was held at the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria. It’s not clear whether her child contracted COVID-19 from prom or school.
“I am concerned, because my teenager, who is extremely careful, vaccinated and boosted, masks at school, masked at the prom, doesn’t go anywhere but school, and currently has COVID,” Campbell said.
A COVID-19 safety policy on the district website notes proof of vaccination or a negative test are required to attend extracurricular events at school sites, but the policy does not mention off-campus events, like the Kit Carson prom hosted at the library.
Few mandatory virus protocols are left standing in California, including at schools. State health officials this March dropped the K-12 indoor masking requirement. On April 1, California also ended its vaccine-or-negative-test requirement for indoor “mega” events.
That leaves the onus on individual districts and school sites, as well as outside venues for those holding prom off-campus, in mitigating virus transmission.
Stacy Corcoran, a parent of a John F. Kennedy High School, said if parents should ensure their children are masked and vaccinated if they’re worried about COVID-19.
“Most of these kids are interacting during the school day and at after school activities anyhow, so I don’t know that hosting these events has a huge impact,” Corcoran said.
This story was originally published May 6, 2022 at 5:25 AM.
