Missouri elementary school to close next week after seven classrooms quarantined
A Missouri elementary school will be closed next week after seven classrooms were quarantined and 14 students tested positive for COVID-19.
Lathrop Elementary had “a tremendous increase in COVID exposures and actual cases,” Principal Chauncey Rardon wrote in a letter on Friday to parents.
“In an effort to mitigate the exposure, and in hopes the virus will run its course with the students already exposed, Lathrop Elementary will be closed next week to in person classes and will offer virtual learning for all students Kindergarten through 5th grade,” he said.
Lathrop School District has not required masks this school year.
An increase in COVID-19 cases in patients including children is related to a lack of vaccination and masking, according to Dr. Vincent Racaniello, a professor of immunology at Columbia University who appeared Friday on The University of Kansas Health System’s COVID-19 briefing.
“I think unless we see masking in schools, we will see even more cases of children getting sick,” he said.
Lathrop is about 38 miles northeast of Kansas City.
More than 52,000 children age 14 and under have contracted COVID-19 in Missouri since the pandemic began, according to data from the state health department.
