CHS reports first COVID-19 infection

Cameron High School administrators sent 20 students home as part of its response to the school’s first COVID-19 diagnosis.

Following updated recommendations from the Clinton County Health Department, requiring quarantining any person within 6 feet of a person diagnosed with COVID-19 for more than 15 minutes, the district announced 20 CHS students were sent home and as the Cameron R-1 School District reaches its fourth COVID-19 diagnosis since the August 25 start date.

“We had an incident happen at the high school today. That one positive kid, obviously, caused a very big ripple, especially if they play in activities or do different stuff,” said Matt Robinson, superintendent. “That’s going to knock out three teachers for 10 days. I applaud our administrators. Our people have done an awesome job … We knew we were going to have that – four cases in four weeks of school is still really, really good. I’ll take that average every year.”

Last summer, the school approved a multi-tier plan in the event of a campus outbreak. It currently operates under Plan A, which requires no deviation from current activities aside from practices to limit the spread of COVID-19. 

Once entering Plan B, the district will split middle and high school students into two groups, Group A and Group B, which the district would determine based on alphabetical order. While Group A attends class, Group B would take an Alternative Method of Instruction day online. As part of Plan B, students attending Parkview Elementary School and Cameron Intermediate School would continue attending classes face-to-face. Plan C limits grades kindergarten through fifth to physically attend class while the remaining Cameron students would take AMI coursework. Plan D is a complete shutdown.

Cameron Assistant Superintendent Laurie Medford said school administrators have not made a decision whether to enter Plan B, but keep a day-to-day spread sheet allowing them to analyze data from the five county health departments working within the boundaries of the Cameron R-1 School District.

“We are still in the process of making a decision. We do not have a hard and fast number,” Medford said. “We are watching every day, mainly in Clinton County and DeKalb County as far as number of reported cases … We’re looking at the amount of positive cases, the trend over seven days. We’re looking at percentages.”

Medford announced a few changes to the district’s COVID-19 prevention policies, basing them off recommendations from the Missouri Department of Early and Secondary Education and health departments throughout the Show-Me State. The latter of which was in effect Monday, when CHS sent home 20 students.

“Initially, we said if someone was quarantined, they could return with a doctor’s note. We eliminated that,” Medford said. “We also found out, with the first positive case, the masks were not necessarily going to limit whether or not students, faculty and staff were quarantined. We did make that change within our plans that, regardless of mask wearing, students within 6 feet for 15 or more minutes will be quarantined. Again, doctor’s notes would not allow them to come back sooner.”