Lying parents put schools in jeopardy

Even as health officials and educators fight to keep the coronavirus out of schools, parents are subverting those efforts by lying to contact tracers, refusing to have their children tested for the virus and, in a handful of cases, sending their kids to school after they’ve tested positive for Covid-19, Washington Ozaukee Public Health Officer Kirsten Johnson said last week.

“I imagined we’d have some pushback on quarantine, but never in my wildest dreams did I think positive kids would be sent to school,” Johnson told the Joint Washington Ozaukee Board of Health Friday, Sept. 18. “People have been just blatantly dishonest.”

That dishonesty, Johnson warned, will have consequences.

“My worst fear is we’re going to see rampant spread (of the virus) in schools and the end result is schools will have to close down, and with the way people are acting now, that’s exactly what’s going to happen,” she said in a scathing indictment of parents who refuse to comply with rules intended to prevent Covid-19 outbreaks in schools.

And there will be serious repercussions outside of schools, she said, noting that Ozaukee and Washington counties are experiencing an increase in Covid-19 cases among school-age people and those between the ages of 20 and 30.

“They will likely infect their family members — parents and grandparents — and that’s when we’re going to see the increase in hospitalizations,” Johnson said. “Novemberish is probably when we’re going to see those numbers increase.”

Johnson’s report to the board comes as Covid-19 cases continue to increase in Ozaukee and Washington counties, with 26 schools reporting cases as of Tuesday and 13 long-term care facilities grappling with outbreaks, one of which is “rather concerning,” she said. 

“It’s spreading quickly,” Johnson said of the virus.

And as outbreaks at schools, assisted living facilities and nursing homes tax county resources, health officials say they are appalled and disheartened by parents who are intentionally thwarting efforts to control Covid-19.

The epitome of irresponsible parents, Johnson said, are those who send their children to school after they have tested positive for Covid-19.

“Something that happened on the very first day of school and is continuing to happen, which I never in my wildest dreams imagined would happen, is people sent their known-positive kids to school,” she said. 

In one instance, officials discovered that a student was in school after testing positive when by the second period of the day she was so ill she had to go to the nurse’s office.

“The nurse had a list of positive kids and said (to the girl), ‘You’re not supposed to be here,’” Johnson said. 

Key to the elaborate measures being taken to keep Covid-19 from running rampant through schools is identifying students and staff members who have the virus or had close contact with someone who does through testing and contact tracing, then making sure they are quarantined at home. But contact tracing only works if people are forthright with public health workers and school officials.

“The biggest challenge we’re experiencing right now is people are just being dishonest,” Johnson said. “They don’t want their children to be quarantined from school. They don’t want to have to miss work. But in doing that, they are really jeopardizing the ability to have school in person and other people’s health.”

Some people who initially cooperate with contact tracers lie about key details, such as when they began experiencing symptoms or who they had contact with, after they realize they and perhaps others around them must quarantine themselves.

“We can’t trust what anyone is telling us,” Johnson said. “Parents are asking us in our contact tracing, ‘What are you going to share with schools? What are you going to tell them?’

“We have a lot of angry, angry people — parents  — calling us, and the school districts are dealing with it first.”

Contact tracing isn’t the only Covid-19 precaution parents are refusing to cooperate with.

“What’s also happening, again never in my wildest dreams did I imagine this would happen, is kids become symptomatic and parents are now refusing to test them because they don’t want to have to quarantine their siblings,” Johnson said. “Again, we’re really risking the spread in schools because it’s highly likely those siblings are going to become symptomatic and positive.”

The time has come for the health department, which has appealed to the public for cooperation in fighting the pandemic, to change its message, she said, adding that department officials had “toyed with” the idea of issuing isolation notices that would compel people to quarantine.

“It’s not like it’s going to be more ‘Please, please work with our contact tracers,’” Johnson said. “It’s going to be, ‘Look, your behavior, your dishonesty is going to result in your children’s schools being shut down. You need to be honest. You need to protect the rest of your community. The end.’”

Don Kriefall, chairman of the Joint Washington Ozaukee Board of Health, said the department may have to take “further actions” in response to people intentionally thwarting its efforts, although he did not specify what those actions might be.

“Obviously if people aren’t complying voluntarily, we have to take further actions,” he said. “When you have parents lying to contact tracers, refusing to have kids tested, that’s just beyond the pale.

“That becomes very problematic for the health department to manage this whole situation. The hammer may have to be dropped.”