Deer Park High School Closed After Student Coronavirus Case

DEER PARK, NY — Deer Park High School is scheduled to reopen Tuesday after it was closed last week when a student contracted the coronavirus.

On Sept. 20, Superintendent Jim Cummings announced the student tested positive for the virus and went into quarantine. He said the student was last in the building Sept. 18 and asymptomatic at the time, so no one needed to go into quarantine.

The student does not have siblings in the school district and did not take the bus to school. The student, who is in the maroon cohort, was starting to feel better, Cummings said in a letter to the community.

School was closed the rest of the week for workers to conduct contact tracing and inform those who were in close contact with the student. Schools are closed Monday for Yom Kippur and expected to reopen Tuesday.

"As long as we keep working together, we can keep each other safe," Cummings wrote. "I continue to remind everyone, that if you are feeling any symptoms, or, If you were knowingly in contact with a person who tested positive, or, If you have been tested and are awaiting test results, you must stay home."

A Robert Frost Middle School staff member who was last in the building Sept. 11 also tested positive for the coronavirus. No one went into quarantine.