Administrators at Edge Middle School in Collin County first quarantined large groups of students then wound up shutting the entire campus down as cases grew.
An entire school was shut down after a coronavirus outbreak on campus.
Administrators at Edge Middle School in Collin County first quarantined large groups of students then wound up shutting the entire campus down as cases grew.
Shannon Guinn got the call Tuesday to pick her son from school.
"There were probably about six other parents standing outside the door," said Guinn. "There’s so many parents stacked deep it’s a reality check."
She and other parents were handed a letter saying their children had been in close contact with a student who tested positive for COVID-19 and would need to stay home 14 days.
"It’s a little scary you know, you don’t want your kids to get it," said Candace Richardson.
Several parents told us this started several days ago with athletics.
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"My oldest plays football and one of the kids on the junior high football team tested positive so last week they put both 7- and 8th-grade football on a 14-day quarantine," said Therese Ahrens.
The school said about 5% of their population was in quarantine and that the number of staffers that remained was not enough to effectively run the school in person.
It's a move parents welcome in Community ISD, a small district where the schools are all next to one another. As the name suggests the people are a tight-knit community, which is great in many circumstances, but not necessarily when it comes to stopping COVID-19.
"We all know each other, everybody knows everybody so being more aggressive in trying to contain, we have the need for that, because things could spread rapidly if we didn’t," said Ahrens.
The district wouldn’t speak to us but said they plan on keeping the school closed for five days while they clean the campus and will reassess where everyone is health-wise.
Edge Middle School may be the first campus in North Texas to close because of an outbreak but families in other districts are being notified of positive cases and quarantined, too.
Since re-opening last week, McKinney ISD said it's sent emails to parents and staff about positive cases at seven schools and is calling families of students who've been in close contact with the infected person. The district said it can't confirm the number of students in quarantine.
