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- A 10-year-old girl in Suffolk, Virginia died of COVID-19 last week.
- Her parents say she was exposed to the virus while she was responsible for accompanying students with symptoms to the nurse.
- School officials are investigating that giving such responsibility to students violates district protocol.
Fifth-grade student died of COVID-19, and her parents claimed she was exposed when given “classwork” of escorting students with coronavirus-like symptoms to the nurse , The Virginian-Pilot reported on Monday.
Teresa Sperry, a fifth-grade student who attended Hillpoint Elementary School in Suffolk, Virginia, died of COVID-19 last week. It is not immediately clear how Teresa contracted the coronavirus as the Suffolk School Division works with the Virginia Department of Health on contact tracing, according to the report.
Teresa’s parents, Nicole and Jeff Sperry, said their daughter told them that the week before her death she was tasked with escorting students to the nurses office when they were showing symptoms.
“One of the things she told us before she got sick was that her job was to be the class nurse to take sick children from class to the nurses office,” Jeff said. Sperry to CNN. “And you have to understand my daughter, that’s who she is, helping people is my daughter, that’s not something she wouldn’t have wanted to do.”
Nicole Sperry added that Teresa had said that “if the children were sick and had to go home, she had to go get their satchel and bring it back,” according to The Virginian-Pilot.
“Our daughter was perfectly healthy. And she would have continued to be here if people had stopped sending their sick children to school,” Nicole Perry wrote in another Facebook post.
Both parents are vaccinated, but Jeff Sperry tested positive for COVID-19 after his daughter contracted the virus, Nicole Sperry posted on her Facebook page.
Infections with the Delta variant of the coronavirus are on the rise among young people as those under 12 are not yet eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
Health officials have indicated that young children will be vaccinated no earlier than the fall of this year, pending the results of clinical trials by Pfizer and Moderna.
Anthonette Ward, spokesperson for Suffolk Public Schools, told the publication she was investigating whether a teacher gave Teresa “classwork” in violation of school policy.
“The protocol at Hillpoint Elementary School is for the teacher or any adult to contact the main office with a ‘C’ code,” Ward told the Virginian-Pilot. “When this happens, one of the administrators or the school nurse will come to the classroom to pick up the student. We are always investigating to make sure this process has been faithfully followed.”
Representatives from Suffolk Public Schools did not immediately return Insider’s request for comment.
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