A Georgia district school said Sunday it will close a third high school by the end of the month amid a COVID-19 outbreak.
The Cherokee County School District has decided to close Creekview High School after 25 students tested positive for the coronavirus and 500 of its 1,800 students in person were placed in “precautionary quarantine,” it said in a statement. Additional tests in pending could “increase the quarantine total”, and the decision was made with the school board and health officials.
Creekview is the third high school to close in the Georgia neighborhood outside of Atlanta, next to Etowah and Woodstock high schools. All three schools are tentatively scheduled to reopen Aug. 31.
Creekview began the year with about 31,000 of its 42,000 students attending in-person instruction. The school district recommended that students wear masks, but did not require it.
“As we have said since we announced our reopening, we will not hesitate to quarantine students and careers in an effort to keep the school staff from operating for as long as possible,” the district said.
Superintendent Brian Hightower encouraged students to wear masks in a statement last week.
“As your Superintendent, I wear a mask when I can not social distance,” Hightower said. “We know all parents do not believe the scientific research that indicates that masks are beneficial, but I believe it and see masks as an important measure to help us keep schools open.”
A 15-year-old boy died of coronavirus Saturday in another suburban Atlanta neighborhood, making him the second-youngest person to die from the virus in the state after a 7-year-old boy died last week . The state said the teen did not have pre-existing circumstances, according to NBC branch WXIA of Atlanta.
Georgia has recorded more than 230,000 cases of the coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic, with more than 4,600 dead.
