Main ‘distressed by reports of aggressive social media posts’
BEND, Oregon. (KTVZ) – The number of students at Summit High School who have tested positive for COVID-19 has increased to 24, mainly from exhibitions for those who attended a party last weekend. With that, the distance classes will continue until next week, informed the director this Saturday.
That’s double the exposures reported on Thursday, before the Bend-La Pine schools offered free tests on Friday at Pilot Butte Middle School.
Here is the full text of a letter sent to parents by Director Michael McDonald:
February 13, 2021
RE: Classes will continue in Comprehensive Distance Learning until February 19
Summit parents and guardians,
Thank you for your support as we continue to work with Deschutes County Health Services to complete our COVID-19 case investigation and contact tracking.
At the time of this message, Deschutes County confirmed 24 positive cases of COVID-19 among young people in the area who attend Summit High School. The plurality of positive cases identified themselves as primary or secondary exhibitions for those who attended a party in Bend last weekend.
Although students attended the school in person on Monday and Tuesday last week, we are relieved to report that there is no confirmed spread of the virus at school. The safety protocols and the excellent adherence to the use of masks and social distance by students and school staff should be grateful for the lack of dissemination in our school or classrooms.
That said, with the increasing number of cases, and to avoid the spread of the virus that can occur before the person knows that he is sick or that he has the virus without feeling symptoms, we will continue teaching and learning through Comprehensive Distance Learning (CDL) ) until Friday, February 19th. Classes will be taught at WebEx and supported by Canvas, following the hybrid programming that we started last week. You can find this schedule at this link here or in the attachment below:
M_Tu_Th_F_Hybrid_Schedule1 (1) .pdf
At this time, we plan to return to face-to-face learning in the week of February 22. This allows for the equivalent of a 10-day precaution quarantine, since the last time students were in the building with academics and / or sports activities / activities, which was on Wednesday, February 10.
Cohort A will return to face-to-face learning on Monday / Thursday and CDL on Tuesday / Friday in the week of February 22.
Cohort B will return to CDL on Monday / Thursday and face-to-face learning on Tuesday / Friday in the week of February 22.
Face-to-face activities and athletics will be suspended and resumed on Monday, February 22.
This decision is made in collaboration with the district leadership and in consultation with Deschutes County Health Services. The decision to continue teaching and learning next week was made with the care, seriousness and consideration that it deserves.
STAY SAFE AND HEALTHY
At this time, those who were not at the party and / or did not come into contact with someone who was at the party and / or have no symptoms of COVID-19 are considered to be at low risk for exposure to COVID-19. We want to help you, your student (s) and those around you stay safe and healthy while your student is at CDL next week.
Students and families, please wear a mask and practice physical distance, avoid group environments and stay at least 6 feet from other people. Also, be aware of the following:
• Monitor for fever, cough, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing or new loss of taste or smell for 14 days from February 8. * Look for the COVID-19 test and notify Summit if your student develops symptoms.
• If the (student’s) temperature is above 100 ° F at any time, or you have a cough, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing or new loss of taste or smell:
- Avoid direct contact with family members and others and wear a mask whenever you are in a shared space.
- Contact your primary care provider or urgent care clinic and tell them that you have been exposed to someone with COVID-19 and have symptoms.
- If you are unable to contact your provider and you are very sick, call 911 and tell them that you are at risk of contracting COVID-19 and that you have developed symptoms.
Read our symptom checker in the COVID-19 Communication Guide to learn more about high and low risk symptoms, when staying at home, what happens when there is a positive case, and more. Click below or download a copy. Or in Español
HEALTH, SAFETY, RESPONSE TO WEEKEND MEETINGS
In addition to being tested for COVID-19, individuals who attend or participate in meetings where social distance and masking do not exist are encouraged to isolate themselves. We also encourage any other family members of these people to be quarantined to help protect the public. We encourage all families to watch this video to learn more about isolation and quarantine.
Deschutes County Health Services also encourages anyone who may have been in contact with a COVID-19 positive person or persons, and / or living with clinically fragile elderly or family members, to consider the isolation of these family members and assuming the youth or adult can be contagious.
The COVID-19 hotline has staff available by phone to answer questions about COVID-19, isolation and quarantine. Due to the President’s Day holiday, the line will reopen on Tuesday, February 16. From February 16, you can contact the hotline at 541-699-5109, seven days a week, from 9 am to 5 pm. contact our school nurse or leadership team.
READY TO GO BACK
We completed the thorough cleaning of our classrooms and common areas of the school, manually cleaned hundreds of surfaces and left the air purifiers on overnight and came back the next day and did the thorough cleaning, in addition to spraying the entire school twice.
RESOURCES
It is my sincere wish that all who are sick can recover and that we can act quickly enough to contain this outbreak. I have heard from many families, students, community members and staff members over the past week that they are experiencing feelings of frustration, anger, sadness and fear caused by this outbreak. These are all reasonable responses. We are here to connect with students
who need support during this time. Get in touch with our counseling, nursing and administration team, visit our Student Mental Health page or review our list of mental health resources during COVID-19.
Tips to help mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic:
· Coping with stress during outbreaks of infectious diseases
· Taking care of your behavioral health during outbreaks of infectious diseases
TEACHING MOMENT
I hope this event will serve as a learning opportunity for our community. We are all ready to end the pandemic and “get back to normal”. But we are not there yet. We need to redouble our efforts to mask, distance ourselves and stay at home when we are sick, if we want to resume some “normal” activities, such as face-to-face learning and athletics. We should all remember that our actions outside school have a major impact on what can happen inside our buildings. This includes how we react to these events. I am distressed by reports of aggressive social media posts taking place in the Summit community. This is not going to help improve the current situation, get us back to school earlier, or strengthen us in any way. We thank the students and families who notified us about the emerging situation so that we could activate our COVID-19 response plans and begin mitigation. Thanks to the immediate and coordinated actions of many, including case investigation and contact tracking, we are delaying the spread in our community. As always, I am grateful for your patience and support in this challenging time.
Sincerely,
Michael McDonald