Clarendon School District 2 sees increase of quarantined students in second week of school

Posted

It's the second full week of school, and the number of students and staff with COVID-19 continues to rise in Clarendon School District 2 schools.

On Monday, the school district received reports that a group of students was exposed to COVID-19 at three CSD2 schools. Officials reported 135 students were quarantined after positive coronavirus cases from Manning Early Childhood Center, Manning Primary School and Manning Elementary School. On Tuesday, five students were quarantined after another positive case at MECC, and on Wednesday, 27 students and one employee were quarantined after a positive case at MECC.

As of Thursday afternoon, this is a total of 167 students quarantined, an increase from last week's figure of 110 students that were sent home.

In a response to frustrated families in the community, the district said in an online Facebook statement that it is following the state's Department of Education guidelines which prohibit virtual instruction unless "the district or school can no longer safely operate and have face-to-face instruction due to staffing shortages resulting from COVID-19 or similar infectious disease."

There is no word yet from school officials on whether they are discussing switching to virtual learning or the grade level of the students in quarantine. The district advised parents to monitor their children's health and that it will follow the proper safety guidelines established by federal officials including the Centers for Disease Control and the state's Department of Health and Environmental Control.

To combat the rising delta variant of COVID-19 among children, the state Education Department announced Thursday it once again is enforcing a mask mandate on school buses, hoping to lower the spread of the virus.