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Virginia community left in shock after 10-year-old girl died of complications from coronavirus has now been hit by another shock: Girl’s parents say her teacher willingly exposed her to the virus in instructing her to escort sick students.
Suffolk public school authorities are currently investigating this claim. Anthonette Ward, spokesperson for the school district, said The Virginian-Pilot that, if this is true, the move would be a violation of school policy. The school has a rule in place that only adults can accompany children with symptoms of COVID-19 to the nurses office, she said.
Teresa Sperry, a fifth grader at Hillpoint Elementary School, died last week, just five days after she started having a headache. The family were told by health officials that they tested positive for COVID two days after her death, according to the Pilot.
Her parents said they followed all safety measures to protect Teresa from the virus, even going so far as to drive their children to school to limit their potential exposure to COVID on the school bus.
But they say Teresa’s teacher regularly took her with other sick children to the nurse’s office.
“It was his class work,” Jeff Sperry told the Pilot.
“And she said if the kids were sick and had to go home, she had to go get their satchel and bring it back,” her mother told the newspaper.
The couple first made an explosive statement on Facebook, where Nicole Sperry wrote that Teresa “would have continued to be here if people had stopped sending their sick children to school.” Her teacher at Hillpoint gave her the job of “nurse”. She had to accompany all the sick students in her class to the nurses’ office. “
The school district sent a letter to parents announcing the “tragic news” of a student’s death, but never offered a phone call to the Sperry family, his mother wrote.
School officials quickly responded to the family’s allegation.
“Hillpoint Elementary School protocol is for the teacher or any adult to contact the main office with a ‘C’ code. When this happens, one of the administrators or the school nurse will come to the classroom to pick up the student, ”said Ward, the spokesperson. Pilot. “We are still investigating to make sure this process was followed faithfully.”
Both parents were vaccinated against COVID, but Jeff Sperry suffered from a breakthrough infection after his daughter’s death.
In an interview with CNN over the weekend, the couple said they hoped their situation would wake others up to the fact that the pandemic is still very real, even if some people choose to ignore the threat of COVID.
“If it was over, my daughter would still be there, we wouldn’t be doing these interviews, we wouldn’t be planning her funeral.” It upsets me so much that people are being so nonchalant about it, when my only daughter is gone, ”Nicole said.
Jeff Sperry said Teresa “was happy, she was healthy and strong, and it took her less than five days.”
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