Entire class forced to quarantine after COVID case in Gateway

An entire classroom at Gateway Elementary was forced to quarantine after it had a confirmed COVID-19 case last week.

The positive case was confirmed last Thursday. Since it involved elementary school students, who spend large amounts of time together, the Department of Health in Lee County and the School District of Lee County’s protocols are to quarantine the students for 14 days.

A spokesperson for the district said Gateway Elementary sent a letter to parents of students in the affected class as soon as the positive case was confirmed.

The Department of Health then began the contact tracing process.

One parent said she’d been preparing herself for news like this from the moment she decided to send her son back to school.

“He needed the time in the classroom and he needed the routine and I trust the school system,” said Kristine Kimbrough, parent of a fourth grader. “It’s kind of expected. I think that the school handled it well and we just have to move forward.”

No one from the school district would answer our questions about the quarantine, including whether it was a student or teacher who tested positive.

At the beginning of the school year, the superintendent for the School District of Lee County said that an entire class would quarantine if more than 5% of the class tested positive. In a class of 20 kids, that would mean at least one person would have to test positive for coronavirus.