A Comal ISD high school student tested positive for COVID-19 during a school band campus, according to a letter sent to parents over the weekend.
The letter was sent to parents of band director Canyon High School, Steve Vaden, saying the student had attended camp on Aug. 6. The student had completed and passed the health screen assessment and followed social distance guidelines.
The student will not return to camp, and her tape equipment has been cleaned and sanitized. The letter did not make clear when the school district was informed of the positive test.
“The programs for marching bands in Comal ISD have and will continue, all established guidelines and protocols followed by the UIL and the district as they continue these band campaigns this week,” the school district said in a statement to mySA.com.
The positive case comes only weeks before the school district will begin instruction on Aug. 25.
Comal ISD has five schools in Bexar County and will open despite the San Antonio Metropolitan Health Department’s directive to delay campus learning until at least Sept. Thirty-seven percent of the families in the school district have said that their students will return to campus.
District teachers and staff are concerned about the return. The San Antonio Express News received an anonymous letter sent to several Comal C0unty officials by a teacher, who said they were very concerned about opening campuses for students and staff.
The teacher, citing increasing positive cases in Comal County, said the district’s plans for reopening were not a safety-centered approach, instead the plans are ineffective and unrealistic. Using the high school seven-year period scheme as an example, an infected student could potentially pass the virus on to more than 100 0 students, the letter said.
“I promise you that if we return to instruction in person while we are still a hotspot, there will be serious consequences,” the letter said. “… We can not count on our district leadership to do the right thing for students and staff. I beg you. I beg you sincerely, please help us prevent this disaster!”
The teacher also accused the district of withholding information from staff about positive cases in the school community, despite a promise from Superintendent Andrew Kim.
There is a “strong contingent of teachers who are so stressed and scared not only about the exposure of pandemics and potential viruses, but also about their personal work safety,” according to the teacher’s letter.
Kim was not immediately available for comment for the Express News story.
Taylor Pettaway is a breaking news and general commissioned reporter for MySA.com | [email protected] | @TaylorPettaway
