Child tests positive for COVID after starting kindergarten

By JASON BARRY

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    SAN TAN VALLEY, AZ (KTVK, KPHO) — Five-year-old Irene Kim and her 8-year old sister Rosalind were excited to start school. But the thrill of being back in class at Eduprize Elementary didn’t last long.

Their mother, Heidi Kim, said that Irene just tested positive for COVID-19, and Rosalind is showing symptoms, as well. “I remember sending her off to kindergarten crying because I felt like I was sending her into a petri dish,” said Kim. “There are literally two other kids in her class that wear a mask and only one other kid in my third grader’s class that wear masks.”

The San Tan Valley mom is convinced the reason her daughters are sick is because of Arizona’s new law that prohibits schools from having a mask mandate, even as COVID-19 cases climb across the state and vaccination rates hover around 50-percent.

K-12 schools are only allowed to recommend masks in accordance with CDC and state health guidelines.

But that’s not stopping two Valley school districts from requiring masks anyway. The Phoenix Elementary School District and Phoenix Union High School District both require masks on campus.

Joe Thomas is president of the Arizona Education Association. He said he wouldn’t be surprised to see more districts make masks mandatory. “If we don’t mitigate properly, we are guaranteeing that we’re going to see a spread inside of our schools,” said Thomas. “How damaging that is to their health short term and long term, I will leave that up to the experts, but I hope we don’t do it just to find out; that would be heartbreaking.”

The Chandler Unified School District started up two weeks ago, and so far, 142 COVID-19 cases have been reported out of roughly 49,700 students and staff.

Kim is worried that as other Valley schools welcome kids back on campus, COVID-19 numbers will skyrocket if students aren’t required to wear a mask. “This is going to get worse, and the more that it spreads, more variants grow, the more at risk it puts everyone,” said Kim. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

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