It’s back-to-school season! That usually means fun new outfits, backpacks, and school supplies for the kiddos. Sure, school isn’t every child’s favorite place to be, but everyone knows the first days and weeks back re the most exciting.

Well, perhaps before the year 2020 it was. This year, of course, is a bit different, as many schools have geared up to offer either remote learning or an in-person hybrid schedule, where only a few kids are in on certain days. Everyone must comply with safety precautions such as wearing masks and social distancing, all in an effort to slow the spread of COIVD-19.

One of the biggest measures to consider, at least for parents, is to keep your child home if they feel sick. Because coronavirus can spread so quickly, it’s important that the moment someone starts feeling sick they have to steer clear of others. At this point in the pandemic, we all know this.

However, one mother sent her teen to school knowing full and well that he was sick. What’s worse, she knew he had COVID-19. His positive test came back on September 11, but then he went to school on September 14, which was the first day of school.

The school, Attleboro High School in Massachusetts, now has 30 students who must quarantine for two weeks after coming into contact with him.

“There’s no question about whether or not the parent knew,” said the Mayor of Attleboro, Paul Heroux.

Sure, staff knew that some cases may occur throughout the year, but they were at least hoping there wouldn’t be any for a while. “I knew that we were going to end up having some cases, but I didn’t expect they would be on the first day,” said the high school’s principal, Bill Runey.

The good news is, thanks to contact tracing, the school was able to quickly find those 30 students who came into contact with the affected student.

“I was pleased that the contact-tracing protocols we put in place helped us pretty quickly ID and narrow down close contacts,” Runey said. “Thirty [students quarantining] is still a lot, but if we didn’t have a greater degree of certainty with seating charts and things like that, we would have had to err on the side of caution for a lot more kids.”

It’s very important that during this time, we all comply with health precautions as best we can, especially when it comes to children and teens.

To hear more on the story, check out the video below.

What do you think of this parent who sent their child to school knowing he had COVID-19? How do you think the high school handled it?