Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Photos show a tightly packed crowd at Boca Raton High
School Board member calls it a ‘misstep’ amid coronavirus pandemic
It didn’t take long for pictures to surface online showing an alarming moment at Boca Raton High School: students packed tight, shoulder to shoulder — with no hope of social distancing.
The pictures, posted on Snapchat on Monday — the first day that school buildings reopened in Palm Beach County — reignited questions about returning to school as COVID-19 cases continue to grow.
Now, Palm Beach County School Board member Karen Brill is offering an explanation for the crowd of students.
The students were huddled under an awning to avoid heavy rain, Brill said.
She also said the district didn’t expect so many students to return in person. Some 1,700 went back to Boca Raton High, about 55% of the school’s 3,100 students. Only one-third of students returned overall in the district.
“It was definitely a misstep. The good thing is they were all wearing masks,” Brill said. “We’re delighted so many students decided to come to our brick-and-mortar school.”
Brill said the situation was corrected the next day. The school has changed its schedule to allow for staggered class changes and dismissal.
The school’s administrative staff will monitor students to pre
vent this from happening again, said school district spokeswoman Julie Houston Trieste.
While new cases of COVID-19 have generally been on the decline over the past week in South Florida, Palm Beach County recorded 177 additional cases on Tuesday.
The county has had 45,602 confirmed cases and 1,307 deaths linked to the disease, nine more than Monday.
Statewide, the infection rate is at the highest level it has been in two weeks.
One commenter on Twitter called the Boca High situation a “social distancing disaster.” The post showed the photo with captions reading “find: the social distancing” and “impossible.”
Dr. Terry Adirim, an emergency physician and dean of clinical affairs at Florida Atlantic University’s College of Medicine, said the photo was concerning. But she said it does not show other important factors like how many of the students were wearing masks or how long they were crowded together.