How Rocklin sixth-graders’ science camp turned into a COVID super-spreading event
The sixth grade science camp was a big deal for everyone. Canceled once due to COVID concerns, the three-night stay in Pollock Pines was highly anticipated among Rock Creek Elementary School students who had weathered the pandemic without such activities for nearly two years.
A group of about 80 students, teachers and chaperones departed the Rocklin school for the Sly Park Environmental Education Center on the morning of Tuesday, Jan. 4. The plan was to stay until Friday. But the camp didn’t last that long.
A positive COVID test forced the camp to shut down a day early. Worse, instead of taking clear steps to control the spread of the virus, administrators left some of the families affected with little guidance once students were sent home and returned to school days later, helping a small cluster of infections become a schoolwide outbreak. The Rocklin Unified School District’s leaders, who rarely miss a chance to downplay the pandemic and denounce Gov. Gavin Newsom’s handling of it, gave short shrift to the COVID crisis unfolding on their own watch.
The COVID outbreak at Sly Park infected a significant number of students on the trip, according to three parents who spoke with The Bee on the condition of anonymity, fearing backlash in a community that is bitterly divided over pandemic precautions. But even when Rock Creek administrators were made aware of the outbreak, they failed to get ahead of it.
Instead, potentially infected sixth graders were allowed back on campus the following Monday, just four days after Sly Park shut down.
In the weeks following the Sly Park trip, Rock Creek Elementary School had the highest COVID positivity rate in the district, reaching nearly 16%. Rock Creek parents who spoke with The Bee expressed frustration at administrators’ lack of transparency, particularly Principal Bevin Graham’s failure to communicate clearly with them once the campers were sent home.
Graham did not respond to requests for comment.
Unhappy campers
To attend the camp, which is operated by the Sacramento County Office of Education, students, teachers and chaperones had to test negative for COVID 72 hours beforehand. Sly Park’s COVID protocols were approved by the health officers of Sacramento County and El Dorado County, where the camp is located, according to Sacramento County Superintendent of Schools Dave Gordon. A Rocklin Unified spokesman noted that the testing requirement was enforced.
The science camp aims to give students an opportunity to learn about nature outside the classroom, with hiking and other outdoor activities in the Eldorado National Forest. Under state guidelines in effect at the time, students were required to wear masks indoors.
On Wednesday, just one day into the trip, a camper experiencing COVID symptoms tested positive for the virus. On Thursday, following Sly Park’s contingency plan in case of a positive test, the camp was shut down and students were sent home.
An email from Graham, Rock Creek’s principal, arrived in parents’ inboxes at 3 p.m. that Thursday stating that “several” COVID cases at Sly Park had forced the camp to shut down. Those who tested positive were picked up at the camp, while all other students could take a bus home, Graham wrote.
About an hour and a half later, Graham sent parents another email saying school would be canceled for all sixth-graders on Friday. She added that students bused back to Rocklin would be given testing kits and were encouraged “to use the home test on Sunday before returning to school on Monday.”
One parent said that when the bus returned to Rock Creek Elementary, they asked Graham whether a negative COVID test would be required before a student could return to school the following Monday. Graham replied that she would send additional updates over the weekend, according to the parent, but they never received any additional information.
A district spokesman said a Rock Creek health aide sent an additional note on Friday to 50 families whose children were “deemed to be in close contact with an individual who tested positive while at Sly Park.” That message, which was not received by all the families, said those students could return to school after 10 days or after five days with a negative COVID test.
Last week, Sly Park reopened to campers for the first time since the Rock Creek outbreak.
Campus spread
In the days after campers returned home, more and more students tested positive. Parents who had not received any guidance from school officials turned to one another — and on each other. Rumors began to circulate about what led to the outbreak — and whose fault it was — to the extent that one parent, a subject of one of the rumors, said she hired a defamation attorney.
Had administrators required testing to return to school, communicated with parents about the spread of the virus, or revealed concern about the health of all their students, the situation might have remained under control. Instead, relations became strained among families who will likely be in each other’s lives for the next six years, and more students got needlessly sick.
One Rock Creek parent whose 12-year-old daughter got sick following the field trip said she remains furious with the school. Another said her daughter had contracted COVID at the camp and wound up infecting the whole family. A third maintained that the Rock Creek staff seemed to be trying their best to handle an unprecedented situation but had failed to be transparent with families.
In recent months, Rocklin Unified has been at the heart of several controversies that have divided the community, including one over classroom mask mandates. School board meetings have been riven by tensions and threats of violence. The school district also suffered the loss of a vaccinated but immunocompromised teacher to COVID, while another remains hospitalized with the disease.
The Sly Park outbreak is another example of Rocklin Unified refusing to do what was necessary to assuage concerns about the virus and curb its spread. Eager to defy COVID precautions and deny the reality of the pandemic, the district was unable or unwilling to deal with the disease when it arrived at its doorstep.