Published December 2, 2020
By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — School officials are urging parents to inform the district if a student is identified as a close contact of someone who tests positive for COVID-19.
Superintendent Kristen Vogel said during the School Committee’s Nov. 24 meeting that the Board of Health informed school officials that four Lynnfield High School students were identified as close contacts of individuals they live with who tested positive for COVID-19. While the state and the Board of Health were told about the cases, she said High School Principal Bob Cleary and COVID-19 Liaison Toni Rebelo were not notified.
“Up until this point, our communication with parents has been amazing,” said Vogel. “We have been able to continue with our hybrid model because our parents have been so forthcoming and so honest by communicating with us immediately upon being notified they might be a close contact or someone, whether it’s a family member or someone they work with, might be positive. That has allowed us to get them the information they need so that we can make sure everyone is safe. That includes members of their own family as well as members of our school community.”
Vogel said communication from families is “crucial” in order for the district’s hybrid learning model to continue.
“We learned from the Board of Health that we were not aware of these close contacts,” said Vogel. “At the time, we did not know whether these children had been in school, but we came to find out they had not been in school. However, there is a risk if we are not made aware of someone in a house being a close contact. We put that in our protocols at the very beginning when we opened up school. We want to be notified about close contacts so that we can make sure everyone stays safe and we can keep our kids coming to school.”
After the Board of Health notified school officials about the four students identified as close contacts, Vogel sent a letter to Lynnfield High families asking them to “please inform us of when there might be a close contact.”
“This has not been our experience with our other schools,” said Vogel. “The parents in our other schools have been letting us know, and it seems to be this only occurred at the high school. That is why the letter was sent to only high school families.”
Vogel said someone forwarded the email to WBZ-TV, which aired a story about the incident. If high school parents do not inform school officials about any close contacts in the future, Vogel said in-person learning at LHS could be “paused.”
“If we were not made aware of close contacts and the kids had come into school, we would have had to pause in-person learning at the high school and go full remote,” said Vogel. “None of us want that to happen. We want our parents to work with us and collaborate with us.”
Vogel said there have been residents “speculating” on social media about the students’ identities.
“It is really unhealthy to do that,” said Vogel. “It’s mean and it’s not supportive. We never identified who these people are and nobody knows who they are. To start pointing fingers and speculating is something I don’t think is appropriate. It doesn’t set a good example and I would ask that people stop speculating about who they think did this because it gets us nowhere. What we need to do is move forward and we need to work together in order to keep everybody safe during this pandemic. We need to keep our kids coming to school.”
School Committee Chairman Jamie Hayman agreed.
“I hope there isn’t a lot of travel over the holidays, but the reality is some people are going to travel,” said Hayman. “That communication about close contacts, where you are going and when you are being tested afterwards is going to both test our system and potentially strain the system.”
