Unrest mounts over COVID-19 cases in Polk schools

LAKELAND — Parents, teachers and staff are growing increasingly angry with the Polk County school district over quarantine issues that they say are endangering the health and lives of people.

The complaints come as the district announced Wednesday that there are six more cases on the Lakeland High School/Harrison School for the Arts campus — bringing their total to 12. That's 27.3% of the 44 cases at 23 district schools officials have reported in the eight days since classes resumed.

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School Board member Billy Townsend said he has heard that Lakeland High/Harrison has quarantined 25 teachers and approximately 300 students.  

“Anecdotes make that credible,” Townsend said, reiterating that those were the number of people told to stay home — not the number of positive cases. Officially, the district has said 12 people connected with the schools, which share a campus, have tested positive for COVID-19. "But the disruption is profound.” 

District and school officials sent an email to Lakeland High/Harrison parents on Tuesday, confirming that the “Florida Department of Health in Polk County has directed specific individuals to self-quarantine, which has resulted in a number of teachers having to temporarily leave campus.” 

On Tuesday, Polk County Public Schools said they “relocated some students to the gymnasium so they could spread out and (be) supervised while continuing to do their work. This was done as a temporary measure while we have teachers out on quarantine. Some teachers have been able to continue working remotely while on quarantine.” 

District and school officials said they expected to have some faculty return to the Lakeland High/Harrison campus Wednesday. 

In a long Facebook post by Townsend on Wednesday, several people identifying themselves as parents and school staff said they know some students or teachers have tested positive, but they aren’t seeing those cases reflected on the district’s webpage dedicated to COVID-19 – polkschoolsfl.com/covidschoolcommunications. 

“It seems that the district is aware of more cases than it is actually reporting. Where’s the transparency?” asked Kelly Pietrodangelo, a parent who commented on the post. “Parents NEED to know so they can make informed decisions.”

In addition, some teachers and staff are saying the rules have changed about who quarantines. Another commenter on the Townsend post said a student came into contact with two positive COVID-19 cases and was told to quarantine for 10 days. A bus driver who was in contact with that quarantined student was told to continue driving. But now that driver’s three children are sick with virus symptoms, including one who attends a local elementary school. They reported that a nurse at Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center, a PCPS area manager and an assistant principal said the child must return to school when they have no symptoms. If the tests are positive, the child will have to quarantine for two weeks, along with anyone who came in contact with them.

Some teachers are also complaining that students are not following mask rules and very little is being done to enforce it.

“At my school, we are told just to ‘document when a student does not wear a mask'," said Michelle Heisig Montero, who instructs the district's most struggling students. “They are literally allowed to walk around the campus with no mask on, in lunch, in each classroom they go to and in between classes.” 

The district announced this week that it's following updated guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including: 

• School district employees who are exposed at their work site and are asymptomatic will have a more stringent safety procedure in place. 

• Employees who live in a household with a person who has tested positive will continue to self-quarantine and not go to work. 

• Exposed employees will monitor their temperatures and symptoms, practice social distancing and have their work areas cleaned more frequently. 

“We are making this shift in conjunction with the Florida Department of Health in Polk County to ensure the safety of all our students and staff amid the ongoing pandemic,” Superintendent Jacqueline Byrd said in a press release. 

District officials said the CDC’s safety guidelines for critical infrastructure were created to ensure the continuity of essential functions. 

The CDC defines close contact as being within six feet for at least 15 minutes. 

Townsend said he spoke to Deputy Superintendent John Hill on Wednesday morning about the issue. 

“He told me that ‘the shift’ in quarantine policy gives staff the option to quarantine at home or return to class if asymptomatic. He said no exposed staff member is being forced to return to class,” Townsend said. “I haven’t seen that optional aspect anywhere in writing; so I urged him to double check that with Superintendent Byrd. But that is his position on the district’s shift in quarantine policy. So you should know that if you’re a teacher or staff member.” 

Kyle Kennedy, a spokesman for the district, said the district continues to update its webpage on COVID-19, which tracks cases at each school. However, neither the district nor the county’s health department will say how many people are quarantined. 

“Our office (Public Relations) does not keep or release quarantine information,” Kennedy said. “That info is maintained by FDOH-Polk; please contact them for assistance.” 

Nicole Riley, a spokeswoman for the Florida Health Department in Polk, said the department does not release any information regarding case investigations at facilities, schools or places of employment at this time. She said such information is exempt from public records laws "as epidemiological investigations are conducted and in order to protect privacy information."

“The Department is working to make some of this information available in the coming days and weeks as we remain committed to public transparency and to providing the most up-to-date information available regarding COVID-19 in Florida,” she said. 

However, in press releases issued twice a week, Orange County Public Schools not only provides the schools and the number of cases at each school or facility, they also provide the number of people quarantined, which is given to them by the Florida Department of Health in Orange County. 

“As of August 21 — because we are reporting this information on Tuesdays and Fridays — 54 positive cases in 34 schools and 4 work locations. As for quarantines, 199 quarantine letters were sent to specific students or staff at 8 schools,” OCPS spokesman Michael Ollendorff said.  “We have an enrollment of 212,000 students, 25,000 employees, with 202 traditional schools.” 

Christy Durham McCullough, a teacher at Winter Haven High School, took the school district to task on social media for playing with people’s lives.

“They don’t have the guts to stand up and do what is right,” McCullough said. “I think the district and part of the board was not willing to push the state. So instead of making decisions, they are letting the virus make it for them.” 

Ledger reporter Kimberly C. Moore can be reached at kmoore@theledger.com or 863-802-7514. Follow her on Twitter at @KMooreTheLedger. 

PCPS COVID-19 cases

Sept. 2

• Lakeland High/Harrison School for the Arts (6)

• Garner Elementary (3)

• Winter Haven High (2)

Aug. 31

• Lakeland High/Harrison School for the Arts (4)

• McLaughlin Middle (1)

• Spook Hill Elementary (1)

• Summerlin Academy (1)

• Winter Haven High (1)

• Lake Gibson Middle (1) 

• Sandhill Elementary (1) 

• Alturas Elementary (1)

• Jean O’Dell Learning Center (1) 

Aug. 30

• Lakeland High/Harrison School for the Arts (2)

• Alturas Elementary (2)

• Denison Middle (1)

• Tenoroc High (1) 

• Garner Elementary (1)

Aug. 28

• Alta Vista Elementary (3)

• Bartow Middle (1)

• Palmetto Elementary (1)

• R. Clem Churchwell Elementary (1) 

• Walter Caldwell Elementary (1) 

Aug. 27

• Citrus Ridge: A Civics Academy (1)

• Purcell Elementary (1) 

Aug. 26

• Denison Middle (1)

• Chain of Lakes Elementary (1)

• Jewett School of the Arts (1)

Aug. 25

• Bartow High/Bartow IB/Summerlin Academy (1) 

Aug. 24

• Boone Middle (1)

Polk's total COVID-19 cases

SEPT. TOTAL: 125 (125.0 avg. per day)

AUG. TOTAL: 4,535 (146.3 avg. per day)

JULY TOTAL: 8,664 (279.5 avg. per day)

JUNE TOTAL: 3,008 (100.3 avg. per day)

LAST 7 DAYS TOTAL: 785 (112.1 avg. per day)

LAST 14 DAYS TOTAL: 1,549 (110.6 avg. per day)

OVERALL TOTAL: 17,292

OVERALL DEATHS: 455

STATE TOTAL: 633,442

STATE DEATHS: 11,651

Top 10 counties for cases

• 1. Miami-Dade-159,400

• 2. Broward-72,371

• 3. Palm Beach-42,518

• 4. Hillsborough-37,668

• 5. Orange-36,488

• 6. Duval-26,807

• 7. Pinellas-20,080

• 8. Lee-18,878

• 9. Polk-17,292

• 10. Collier-11,819

Source: Florida Department of Health

Top 10 states for cases

Through Sept. 1

• 1. California-715,617

• 2. Texas-637,721

• 3. Florida-633,442

• 4. New York-435,510

• 5. Georgia-272,697

• 6. Illinois-238,216

• 7. Arizona-202,342

• 8. New Jersey-192,290

• 9. North Carolina-169,424

• 10. Tennessee-156,329

Source: Johns Hopkins University