The district creates a portal for parents to report potential cases 

Bedansh Pandey, News Editor & Ria Dubey, Staff Writer

In March, Georgians paid little heed to the one coronavirus case that had made its way into the state on a flight from Italy. But nine months later, that one case has become 483,000 coronavirus cases, robbing the lives of more than 9,516 Georgians. And yet, with the hope of a vaccine just around the corner, counties have rushed to put out the flares of the virus within their own jurisdictions.

With the highest number of cases in the state (43,521 and counting), Fulton County has made many notable strides in its battle against the pandemic. On Oct. 12, Fulton County Schools announced their partnership with the Fulton County Board of Health to create an online COVID-19 Reporting Portal for parents. 

The way in which the portal works is fairly simple: If their child tests positive, parents can visit the designated site and enter their child’s name, school, grade, etc. Afterward, this information is sent to officials at the Fulton County Board of Health, who then communicate any pertinent information to the Fulton Student Health Services Team. Subsequently, the Fulton Student Health Services Team notifies the school if it needs to be shut down or if a certain set of the student population must quarantine.

However, a student does not have to test positive for COVID-19 in order for his or her parent to report it on the portal. With some test centers taking up to two weeks to return the results to patients, a student who has yet to receive his or her test results can still potentially transmit the virus to classmates, teachers, and other students. The county recognized these concerns and has created a set of comprehensive criteria that includes students who are still awaiting their test results. 

“The two D’s of COVID-19 prevention are distance and duration. So if you don't have a mask, but you do have [social distancing], you're still high risk. A mask doesn't give you a benefit, which I thought––for me as an academic officer––that was kind of interesting,” Jones said. “Even though we may all need to wear a mask, when it comes down to contact tracing, we still consider exposure there if there was no social distancing.” 

Despite the stringent criteria that a case report on the portal requires, there have been questions about its efficacy. Members of the community have expressed concerns as to the length of time it takes for the district to identify and contact trace a case. Principal Brian Downey of Northview High School claims that the process itself is efficient but delays only occur depending on case-by-case situations. 

“We have district and department of health employees who, 24 hours a day, are working. As soon as something gets reported, it’s getting acted on within that hour. How long it takes to investigate and contact trace, that’s going to depend,” Downey said. “If a report came in at noon, for instance, it would be settled by 4 p.m... But if something came in at 9 p.m. I may not even see the email. They may start the investigation, but it may be put on hold overnight.”

Although this has not been an issue for schools in the Johns Creek community, students in other districts have been part of a number of super spreader events within their community, exacerbating the precarious nature of virus transmission within their regions. 

Fulton County does not have a policy that penalizes students for not wearing masks or social distancing, but the district has commented on students who purposefully endanger the lives of others. 

“[The district] has put out some pretty strict language about kids who knowingly deceive the school. It pretty much stated that ‘if you know you’re positive and you still come to school, we’re going to take disciplinary action against you,” Downey said. “If you knowingly deceive or knowingly ignore these protocols that we have in place, then we will take action. ”

At St. Pius X Catholic High School, a private school located in the Atlanta area in DeKalb County, the administration has had a situation in which such repercussions were necessary. After a group of 80 sophomores held a Halloween party, more than 49 students tested positive for COVID-19, and the school shifted to virtual learning for a week. 

“I am disappointed that despite the extraordinary effort and exorbitant expense to the school to ensure a safe environment, we have instances where safety protocols are totally ignored off school grounds,” Steve Spellman, principal of St. Pius X, said in a statement issued to the public. 
This was especially troublesome for the school because most of the 1,100-member student body enrolled for in-person instruction, and thus the school needed to remain vigilant of spread to faculty, staff, and other students.
A spokeswoman for the school, Maureen Smith, explains that the school moved quickly to mitigate the spread of the virus to other students and encountered little difficulty in following the outlined process. 
“Monday, Nov. 2, St. Pius X Catholic High School was notified that a student had tested positive for COVID-19. When the contact tracing team interviewed the student, they were informed that the student had attended a large gathering the weekend before,” Smith said. “Later that week, it became clear that the safest action to take was to send all students into virtual learning to prevent an outbreak within the school.” 

Since the school’s inception in 1958, there has never been a global crisis that has subjected the students, parents, and staff to such distress. Ultimately, Smith believes that the school’s policies were effective and prevented a larger spread event from occurring. 

“The system worked as it was supposed to in this case,” Smith said. “It would be difficult to have 0 cases since community spread is so high. We have to tackle each situation as it comes up and be aggressive to keep our communities safe.”