DRAPER, Utah — The Canyons Board of Education called a special meeting Friday to discuss how to stop the spread of COVID-19 after 500+ people were quarantined following a district teacher being stricken with coronavirus.
Corner Canyon High School teacher Charri Jensen, also known as "Mama J," has been placed on a ventilator with COVID-19 after testing positive a week ago.
WATCH LIVEWATCH LIVE - Canyons Board of Education is holding a special meeting to discuss how to stop the spread of COVID-19 after 500+ were quarantined at Corner Canyon High School
Posted by FOX 13 News on Friday, September 18, 2020
Her daughter Talesha posted word of her mother's condition to social media on Thursday.
“We just keep telling each other like, when are we going to wake up from this nightmare,” Talesha said.
Talesha says last week her mom started coughing and not feeling well and decided to get tested after learning a coworker had just tested positive.
Charri tested positive and so did the rest of the Jensen family.
“It’s just terrifying, it’s absolutely terrifying and it happened so fast," Talesha said. “I never would’ve thought that it would spread so fast and so rampant.”
Talesha says her mother tried to fight the virus on her own, but with such low oxygen levels, she was hospitalized this week, and on Thursday she was moved to the intensive care unit at Intermountain to be put on a ventilator.
“That was one of the scariest phone calls of my life” Talesha said. “Like you here ‘intubation’ and you think worst-case scenario.”
Now with Charri in the hospital, the Jensens are leaning on others for support.
“We’ve had an outpouring of love, messages, Facebook messages everyone just reaching out to us,” Talesha said. “They’re bringing us dinner, our church has provided us dinners for the next week so we’re taking care of it.”
The Canyons School District says it has more than 500 students and staff placed under quarantine at Corner Canyon. Last week a message was sent to parents alerting them of the rising numbers and reminding them of safety precautions.
"That is a real emphasis that we’ve had this year in the Canyons School District,” spokesman Jeff Haney said. “All employees are asked to fill out the check list and all of our parents have been asked to do temperature checks and a checklist on health before their kids go to school everyday.”
The district will host a board meeting Friday evening to discuss a plan of action as they move forward.
The Salt Lake County Health Department sent a "School Quarantine Notice" last Saturday to parents of students who came in close contact with the an employee, later identified as Jensen, who had tested positive. Over 500 people were placed under quarantine after being exposed to Jensen, according to district spokesperson Jeff Haney.
Students and their parents under the quarantine order are allowed to leave quarantine Friday.
In the special meeting, the Canyons Board will seek input from employees and parents after COVID-19 cases rose in Draper over the past week.
Canyons District will also launch its own data dashboard Friday that will include positive cases per school, the attendance rate for in-person learning, the number of quarantined students, the percentage of students at each school, and community spread by ZIP code.
In a new Instagram post Friday, Talesha Jensen wrote that her mother's birthday is Sunday and the family will be holding a fast "in hopes of improvement" and asked others to participate.
"All we can ask for is lots of prayers and to keep her in your thoughts right now!"