Officials: Students exposed to virus attended party
Olympia High School shut down over coronavirus concerns
Orange County school leaders decided to shut down Olympia High School on Sunday after learning more than 150 students and staff had been exposed to the coronavirus, including at least 13 students who were at a birthday party together.
Three of the Olympia students with positive tests had been together at a “social event in the community” and some of the 136 students who were exposed had been there, too, Superintendent Barbara Jenkins said on Tuesday.
Dr. Raul Pino, Orange County’s health officer for the Florida Department of Health, said his office has determined that at least 13 Olympia students were at the event, which he described as a birthday party held on Aug. 29.
Students from two other high schools might have attended as well, he said, adding that not all the teenagers were fully sharing information. “It’s an open investigation,” he added.
Shutting down the school, Pino said, seemed the best choice to avoid the party becoming one of the “super-spreading events” seen in other communities.
School board member Pam Gould, whose district includes Olympia, said officials believe the event was at someone’s home.
Olympia should serve as a “cautionary tale,” she said, and a reminder that in order for schools to remain open, everyone needs to follow health guidelines off campus, too.
“Leave it cleaner than you found it and wear your mask,” Gould said. ““We have to work collectively.”
Pino agreed. “We have to be forceful with our children,” he said. “Individual actions some
times have community consequences.”
The call to close the school for two weeks came after Jenkins and some of her staff held a Sunday conference call with local officials at the health department. The decision was made “in partnership” with the health department, Jenkins said Tuesday.
By Sunday, the health department knew that five Olympia students and one staff member had tested positive and test results were pending on another person, Jenkins said. After tracing contacts for those with positive tests, the health department determined 136 students, 19 teachers and one bus driver had “direct contact” with one of the six and needed to quarantine.
The number of people exposed was “pretty extensive,” Jenkins said, and that prompted the decision to close the school on Apopka Vineland Road until Sept. 18.
“We just felt like that was safer to prevent any further spread,” she said.
Having 19 teachers who needed to stay home also was a challenge. “That would have crippled the school’s ability to function,” she added.
With the campus closed, all of Olympia’s classes moved online starting Tuesday, with the 19 teachers still able to work from home unless they become ill.
The 136 students who were exposed amounted to nearly 15% of the 920 students studying on campus. Olympia’s other 1,950 students already were doing virtual lessons from home. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Orange school district gave parents the option to send their children to campus or to have them study online when the 2020-21 school year started last month.
School leaders and families knew school closures and quick switches to online education were a possibility, Gould said. “I was sad it happened as fast as it did, I guess.”
Olympia was the first Orange school but the second in Central Florida to close because of COVID-19 concerns. Harmony Middle School in Osceola County was shut down on Aug. 28.
All Orange students have district-issued laptops, so Olympia students who were on campus can do live online lessons now that they and their teachers are working from home.
An elementary school closure could be more problematic, however, causing problems for working parents who might quickly need child care. Jenkins said that is a worry, but safety still has to be a top priority. Her advice to parents this school year: “You’ve got to have a plan B or a pivot plan.”
Still, Jenkins and health department officials have said that while positive cases at schools are inevitable now that campuses are open, they don’t always mean a school is shuttered.
“You try not to just shut down the whole school,” she said.
Health department officials use class schedules, seating charts and bus ridership logs, among other items, to determine how many people might be at risk of exposure.
“It’s pretty extensive,” she said. “That’s why folks have to have some patience.”
Pino has said the goal is to be “surgical,” if possible. If students were wearing masks and maintaining social distance, then just being in a classroom with someone who tested positive would not necessarily mean they were at risk.
On Friday, the Orange school district reported Olympia was one of 11 schools where positive cases been reported in the the last three days and some people had been told to quarantine. The 10 other schools combined led to only 18 quarantine letters.
COVID testing is available Tuesday and Wednesday at Olympia High from 2 to 7 p.m. for those told they have been exposed.