JoCo athletic director pleads with students to follow COVID rules amid school outbreak
The athletic director at Shawnee Mission South High School is pleading with families to take COVID-19 protocols seriously through the rest of the school year, after roughly 200 students were instructed to quarantine this week.
In a message to parents and athletes, Athletic Director John Johnson said he has sent out nearly 200 quarantine letters since Monday. He said “there are more students with positive tests, and that is causing an extreme domino effect of COVID transmission concerns.”
“The next quarantine could lead to a team not being able to participate in post season or may impact individual players’ ability to participate,” he wrote. “It would be exceedingly unfortunate if either of these scenarios occurred.”
“Please take nothing for granted. Commit to the COVID mitigation practices and give yourselves the absolute best chance for full participation in your sport.”
The outbreak comes as some area pediatricians are warning that many parents are refusing to have their sick children tested for the virus. Public health officials have said for weeks that testing is down. Many attribute it to a public fatigued by more than a year of fighting COVID.
Johnson County health officials have warned that while the number of new coronavirus cases is down, the drop in testing makes it more difficult to know how widespread transmission of the virus has become. And they are urging eligible residents to get vaccinated, saying that demand has slowed.
More than 43% of eligible residents — those 16 years of age and older — have received at least one dose of the vaccine. Out of eligible residents, 30% are fully immunized, health officials said Thursday.
On Thursday, the Johnson County Board of Commissioners decided to end the county mask mandate and instead only strongly recommend that residents follow COVID-19 safety protocols.
The county’s decision does not affect the requirements in public schools, though, which have separately mandated masks in school buildings.
In light of the COVID-19 outbreak at Shawnee Mission South, Johnson said he messaged families as an “urgent plea to not take anything for granted now,” as the sports season ends in a couple of weeks.
“We are so close — to lose your opportunities now would be a loss,” he told athletes.
District spokesman David Smith would not specify how many students have either tested positive for COVID-19 or have been instructed to quarantine, citing privacy concerns. He said that it is typical for student athletes to be quarantined from playing sports after a potential exposure, but still be allowed to attend class.
“At school, we have protocols, including mask-wearing and social distancing. But when you’re participating in sports, it’s not always possible to do those things,” Smith said.
The district’s dashboard reporting COVID-19 cases and exposures was last updated on Monday. As of that day, the district reported that 192 students were in isolation, meaning they had either tested positive or were presumed positive for the virus. Out of those students, 170 had symptoms of COVID-19.
As of Monday, 62 students were reported to be in quarantine, meaning they had been exposed to a positive case.
Student athletes and their parents have urged school districts to continue allowing sports since the beginning of the pandemic, worried about lost scholarship opportunities and detrimental effects on children’s mental health. Health officials previously said that districts were largely preventing in-school transmission of the virus, thanks to masks and social distancing, but that sports were more likely leading to COVID-19 exposures.
With many teachers, staff and eligible teenagers now vaccinated, district officials have been more confident that in-person classes and activities may safely continue. But Smith said that everyone must remain vigilant through the end of the school year.
“This has been an extraordinary year for a lot of reasons. And we still have many important things happening. Some schools still have proms; we still have graduations. Let’s see if we can just get to the finish line here,” Smith said.
At least three Johnson County school districts have been fielding complaints from parents over their mask requirements. Parents have challenged the mandates under Senate Bill 40, a state law that allows anyone who feels they’ve been “aggrieved” by a state or local public health order to challenge the policy in court.
The Olathe, Blue Valley and De Soto districts have held hearings in response to several complaints, but have all upheld their mask requirements. Smith said that Shawnee Mission has not received any challenges.
This story was originally published April 29, 2021 at 3:50 PM.
