Mother calls for more safety measures in schools after daughter tests positive for COVID-19

By Christine Stanwood

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    EDMOND, OK (KOCO) — An Edmond mother is upset after she says her daughter contracted COVID-19 just two days after the start of the school year.

She now hopes Edmond Public Schools will follow Oklahoma City Public Schools’ lead by requiring masks.

The mother named Teresa told KOCO 5 her daughter is diligent about wearing a mask and claims she got COVID-19 days after going back to school in person.

“Friday, she comes home from school, and she seems to be doing OK. Then, last night, I came home from work, and she didn’t look well,” Teresa said.”She looked like she didn’t feel good.”

Teresa knew something wasn’t right with her 11-year-old daughter Sunday.

“She looked like she didn’t feel well, so I took her to go get COVID testing,” Teresa said. “She had a sore throat, a slight fever. And it was positive.”

After her daughter tested positive, the Edmond mother checked her phone.

“If I wasn’t combing through my email last night to send off an email, I wouldn’t have seen it,” Teresa said.

Teresa received an email from her daughter’s middle school explaining someone in her class tested positive for the virus and detailing she could have been exposed Friday. The letter said, “Edmond Public Schools and the Oklahoma City-County Health Department strongly recommended that your child complete a seven-day or 10-day quarantine; however, it is not a requirement.”

“So, you can go to school. You can be exposed to COVID and come back without necessarily having to get tested or be quarantined because all that’s optional,” Teresa said.

Edmond Public Schools Superintendent Angela Grunewald sent a letter to parents Monday saying in part, “Masks are beneficial; however, each employee and family can make a personal decision on mask-wearing.” The letter went on to say that “while our COVID cases are currently very low, we can expect that they will rise.”

“It infuriated me because they’re enforcing a mask mandate,” Teresa said. “A lot more students are going to get sick, and a lot more students could be way worse off than my child is.”

Teresa told KOCO 5 that her whole family is vaccinated except for her 11-year-old daughter due to vaccine age limits.

“I just think more should be done to protect our children because our children come first. They’re our future, and we need to be able to protect them,” she said.

Teresa said she is considering moving her daughter to online learning.

Parents who don’t feel comfortable sending children back to in-person learning have the Virtual Edmond option. Enrollment ends on Aug. 25.

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