A nurse at Wahlquist Junior High School in Farr West quarantined a student in a school storage closet after the student was exposed to COVID-19 through a classmate, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in 2nd District Court.
The student had not demonstrated any symptoms of COVID-19, the lawsuit states. But the nurse had previously informed his mother, Deann Heaton, on Friday, Oct. 30, 2020, that he needed to quarantine after coming in contact with a student who tested positive for more than fifteen minutes.
The teen wasn’t supposed to return to school until Nov. 13, 2020, the nurse said, or Nov. 6, 2020, if he tested negative, according to the complaint. When the mother questioned why the student needed to be held out of school if he had no symptoms, the nurse said the teen could end up hospitalized in an intensive care unit if he had COVID-19, the lawsuit states.
On Monday, Nov. 2, 2020, the student boarded a bus and went to school, where the lawsuit alleges he was stopped, then quarantined in a storage closet during first period. The lawsuit states the student was ordered to remain in the closet, which had no window, without his parents’ authorization.
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