3 More Coronavirus Cases In Schools; 93 Kids, Staff In Quarantine

EAST HAVEN, CT —With 93 students and teachers at home in quarantine, East Shore District Health director Michael Pascucilla told the board of education, and the hundreds watching Monday's special meeting via Zoom and YouTube, that the schools are the safest place to be."

He said that despite the district having just a "few cases" and "some students" in quarantine, the community should "at all costs" try to keep kids in school since "our schools are the safest place to be."

Reiterating what he told Patch last week, Pascucilla said COVID-19 cases in East Haven schools is from community transmission. He pointed to car-pooling, gatherings, sports, social gatherings, folks failing to wear masks and failing to social distancing.

And while he referred to just "a few cases," there are at least 12 and possibly 20 cases in the district, with five to seven full classes sent home to quarantine — though he said that it was not necessary for siblings and other family members in a home with quarantined kids. "If we did that there'd be many thousands of people in quarantine' it's not necessary; it's a precaution."

"That's how the law works. That's how quarantine works. We get asked multiple times a day. It's just a precaution. When we look at quarantine, nearly all don't get sick." For example, he said, "if there're two siblings" from other schools who live in a home where a child has been sent home to quarantine, the other kids in the family can go to school. A number of board members thanked him for his comments but were concerned because so many parents are concerned.

But, a "contact of a contact is not a contact," the state department of public health and state department of education noted in a video played for the board by schools superintendent Erica Forti.

Meanwhile, on Monday, three more cases in the schools was confirmed and two more full classes were sent home to quarantine, joining an existing five full classes already in quarantine and doing remote school work. The latest positive tests are in Deer Run, Tuttle and East Haven High schools, according to Forti.

As of Monday, there are a total of 93 students and teachers at home in quarantine.

Last week Forti told Patch that just one class at Grove J. Tuttle Elementary School was sent home to do remote learning and quarantine after the teacher tested positive for coronavirus.

But a day later, on Friday, Forti said since she wasn't asked if there were other classes in quarantine, she did not offer the information. In fact, there were a total of four elementary school classrooms in three different East Haven elementary schools that were quarantining as an educator or student in the class tested positive for COVID-19. And by early Friday morning, a fifth elementary school class was put into quarantine after a positive COVID test.

People can return to school after quarantine and without a COVID-19 test. Pascucilla said that while schools by law cannot mandate people be tested for COVID-19 before returning to schools, he thinks they should.

As of Monday, classes under quarantine were in Dominick H. Ferrara School, Tuttle School, and East Haven Academy.

In Patch’s interview with Forti and Pascucilla last week, they discussed how COVID-19 is not borne in the schools, but is coming in through community transmission.

East Haven Public Schools, unlike neighboring school districts who oped to go with the hybrid model, did a full, in-person schools model.

Bottom line from Pascucilla is that it's up to the community to "do its part" to stop the spread of coronavirus by avoiding gatherings, especially in light of Thanksgiving on the near horizon. He said he doesn't want to be the one to send that message, the antithesis of what Thanksgiving is all about, but he urged people to not gather in groups not from their own household.