Last night we brought you the story of Wesley lower school's exposure to COVID-19. It caused quite a frenzy when three lower division students, as well as one of their teachers, tested positive.
But while Wesley lower was hard at work doing damage control, Wesley Upper, which only had one child test positive, was also getting burnt by the Covid scare.
And today in an attempt to reassure parents that school is still safe, Principal Nicole Middleton urged caution around use of the word "outbreak."
She also told us about what she fears could be psychological effects on the infected student, and on the wider school community.
Nicole Welch Middelton, Principal, Wesley Upper School
"Our child that was tested positive, that child comes to us from 8-11 in the mornings, the last time the child was at school was on Thursday between 8:30 and 11 o'clock. When you come to Wesley Upper we are very strict with the protocols and so it's very difficult for everybody even with the disease to come here and spread the disease because we insist on taking the temperature, sanitizing regularly, and social distancing, after we have done our due diligence we realized that the child in question for us contracted the disease sometime between Friday and Sunday so the child actually had no contact with other children at our school but because we're in this pandemic and we're so serious about the health protocols and everything we still when we were notified by the Ministry of health, we ran the health protocols. The child was in class with eight other students, 9 are on that morning shift and so nine students have been tested with the rapid tests, all the tests are negative at this time but we still have pending the PCR tests that will come back to us I think tomorrow or by Monday."
"Our child got a positive result the Sunday, what that family chose to do, they acted very very responsibly they kept at home, not only the siblings of the child but also the other relatives. So nobody from that family came to our compound after the test was given and it was proven to be positive. So we have that family out and the 9 others out, our teachers were tested, the person who does the temperature check at the gate and the sanitization, that person was tested and all our results have been negative but what is our main concern is the level of negativity that struck."
Cherisse Halsall:
"I don't know if you know the status of your sister school this morning, is it open?"
Nicole Welch Middelton, Principal, Wesley Upper School
"Some classes are open, some classes are open at Wesley lower because the protocol is that you close down the people who may have been exposed. So those classes are closed immediately and then a full sanitization process takes place on those classes."
"My child because we keep in contact with the people that were affected, she doesn't want to come out because she believes that at the school we are blaming her and her family but we are not blaming anyone really we just need people to act responsibly in their behavior, social distance, sanitize and do whatever it is necessary to do to prevent the disease."
"If it is that one of our children had tested positive that had nothing to do with somebody at the princess, we would have closed down sanitized the entire place and things like that, so run the protocols on a more extensive level."
Wesley upper has closed the corresponding standard 6 classrooms, while Wesley lower is closed for sanitization until Tuesday.
