School officials in Oklahoma say a student knowingly attended classes with the coronavirus on the first day of school, thinking it was safe to do so because he was asymptomatic.
The student at Westmoore High School in Moore, just south of Oklahoma City, was “under the understanding that since they were asymptomatic … they did not need to quarantine for the full 14-day-period,” school officials told NBC affiliate KFOR on Friday.
The Moore Public Schools Administration did not respond to requests for comment by phone or email to NBC News on Sunday, but said in a letter to parents that school nurses have “completed tracing within our school to identify students and staff who may have been potentially exposed to the virus through close contact.”
The student was identified following an anonymous tip on Thursday, the first day of classes for the school, according to KFOR. The parents of the child told the school they had “miscalculated” the end of their child’s quarantine and thought it was safe to send him to school.
Moore schools announced that another student also tested positive for the virus, and 22 students who came in contact with the two students are now quarantining.
“We will do absolutely everything within our power to safeguard and protect our students and our staff,” school spokesperson Dawn Jones told KFOR.
“I don’t know why people do things, why they make certain decisions. What they know to be true and inform us of,” Jones said.
Oklahoma has recorded nearly 48,000 cases of COVID-19, including more than 650 deaths, since the start of the pandemic.
