Three employees at two Long Beach high schools tested positive for COVID-19 last week, setting off rumors among parents and teachers in recent days and highlighting fears many teachers have about returning to their classrooms for virtual learning.
Long Beach Unified School District spokesman Chris Eftychiou confirmed that one employee at Poly High School and two employees at Millikan High School tested positive for the virus. While teachers and most staff are not yet back on campus officially, some are on campus to set up their classrooms and attend to other pre-school year details.
People in several Facebook groups, including the “Parents for Teachers LBUSD” group, were alarmed with the news, asking why all teachers and staff weren’t notified of the cases.
Eftychiou said all employees who were potentially exposed received a notification, per health official guidance.
Still, the incident underlines a huge point of contention for LBUSD teachers: The district is requiring them to teach students virtually from their classrooms, possibly bringing unnecessary exposure risks along with it. This is a focus in collective bargaining with the teachers union and the district, which is ongoing.
One parent who is also the spouse of an LBUSD teacher, Tony Brown, said he believes that everyone has an interest in being informed of the fact that someone at a school has tested positive.
“It is especially important for the teachers, who are now bargaining for the ability to choose for themselves where they can safely teach online this fall, to be informed about the real risks of returning to their campuses to do so,” Brown said. “By hiding relevant information that is available only to the district, the district is essentially bargaining with the teachers in bad faith.”
Other parents in the thread pointed out that in many cases, it doesn’t help to notify people who weren’t in direct contact other than to increase anxiety.
The Long Beach Health Department officials just revised and released new exposure management plans for schools on Thursday.
The protocol says that with one confirmed case, schools must work with the person to get a list of close contacts at the school, notify them and tell them to get tested and self-quarantine for 14 days. It’s also recommended that the schools send a general notification to the wider school community, but it’s not required.
For two confirmed cases, the schools must follow the same steps, but officials also recommend the school try to determine if those who tested positive were exposed at the same time and place and, if so, reinforce the message to take proper precautions and implement interventions to prevent spread.