Dealing with Our First COVID Quarantine - Siblings!

[jnemartin]

TLDR: If you have a student who is quarantining because they are a close contact, do you send their siblings with no contact with COVID+ person into quarantine as well? A sibling in school who was not in contact is getting bullied. 

We have a student A who was a close contact with a positive. Student A is quarantining, NO symptoms, tested neg 5 days after contact but obviously continuing full 14-day quarantine. student A's sibling was not in contact with the positive. At home, they are separated. Sibling is getting bullied by peers for being at school. Per our state guidelines, sibling can be in school (unless Student A develops symptoms or tests positive), so sibling is not doing anything wrong. 

I was NOT expecting the bullying backlash. I am considering that in future cases all siblings must go home, just for this reason. Thoughts?

*(small private school, everyone knows everyone's business, the parents knew the whole story even before I did... they just don't understand how determining "close contacts" work)

[jnemartin, BSN, RN]

2 hours ago, BrisketRN said:

Another small private school nurse here.  Yes, our policy is that if a student is being quarantined then their sibling may not be at school.  The idea is that since a person can be contagious up to 2 days before being symptomatic then there is a chance we're spreading it across the school without realizing.  The other idea is that small private schools are breeding grounds for these rumor spreading situations.

We've actually had our first positive case and have had to quarantine an entire class in one grade level.  During the other class in that grade level's lesson yesterday a child shouted out "That class isn't in because Johnny Smith has COVID!"  First off, it's not Johnny that has COVID.  Secondly, this is a concurrent class so all the at-home kids (and their parents) heard that.  I was told the teacher shouted "We do NOT talk about anyone's medical information.  That is like passwords and addresses.  It is private, and we will not talk about it anymore."  I was told right away because we expected the rumor mill to start spinning. 

I think your situation needs to be handled as a disciplinary issue.

After this incident, we are considering changing the school policy to say that if one sibling goes home, all siblings need to go home. The leadership team is torn about this because, well, parents will be mad they're paying all this money for "homeschool." Plus, it's not the actual recc from CDC/dept of health, so parents will have a way to push back. 

 

And yes, the bully girl is going to be in big trouble. I saw what she posted on social media and the tests she sent to sibling, and it was NASTY. 

[ruby_jane, BSN, RN]

In our district the nurse of the initial case calls the nurses whose campuses house the sibs. They get a 14-day quarantine. That is straight out of our third-largest-county-in-the-state's Department of Health playbook. What a lousy thing to have happen.

[NurseInTheHall, ADN, RN]

On 10/8/2020 at 9:48 AM, BrisketRN said:

"We do NOT talk about anyone's medical information.  That is like passwords and addresses.  It is private, and we will not talk about it anymore." 

I like this! I usually say "Medical information is private information" and leave it at that, but this gives them a nice example. Totally using this from now on. 

[BrisketRN, BSN, RN]

16 hours ago, NurseInTheHall said:

I like this! I usually say "Medical information is private information" and leave it at that, but this gives them a nice example. Totally using this from now on. 

Right?  I was proud to hear how well the teacher handled it.  New, young teacher too.