GREEN COVE SPRINGS, Fla. – There were 154 Clay County students who were positive for COVID-19 during the second week of classes, according to the school district.
During that same week, the Clay County District Schools’ COVID-19 report for Aug. 16-20 shows, 406 students -- out of 39,161 in the district -- were in quarantine.
In addition, according to the report, 40 of 5,115 staff members were positive for the coronavirus during that time.
In comparison, 80 students were positive for COVID-19, 226 students were in quarantine and 29 staff members were positive for the virus during the week of school.
The first day of classes was Aug. 10. Within days, Cynthia Pate’s 16-year-old grandson, who is a junior at Clay High School, got a soar throat and a fever. She said he tested positive for COVID-19 on Aug. 13.
“It’s hard. I’m mad. I’m sad, too,” Pate told News4Jax. “It’s depressing honestly.”
The teen is raised by his two grandparents, and the family has been quaranting in their Green Cove Springs home since he tested positive.
“He’s still in that room. He won’t come out. You know, it’s already difficult being a teenage boy, 16, living with your grandparents,” Pate said.
She said her grandson took extra precautions because he did not want to bring the virus back home to his grandparents who are high-risk.
“The boy does not go anywhere. He hasn’t been off our property. He doesn’t go hang out with other kids. He only goes to school. He doesn’t ride a bus,” Pate said.
Masks are highly encouraged but not required in Clay County schools. Pate thinks they need to be mandated.
“You, as a grandparent, are worried about, OK, if I get it and something does happen to me, OK, maybe it doesn’t, but what if it does, and I’m no longer there to take care of my grandson?” Pate said.
Right now, the school district is not reporting the number of cases at each individual school, and that has many parents frustrated.
They’ve created a Facebook group called “Clay County Covid Exposures” that has nearly 4,000 members to take matters into their own hands.
“It’s nerve-wracking. We sent our kids to school thinking that once they get there that the county is going to protect our children, and they’re not,” said one mother, who did not wish to be identified and whose son is a second grade student at Paterson Elementary School. “I don’t need the names of the children that are affected. I just want to know is in it in my son’s classes, is it in my son’s school, so we that can be on the lookout. This is what we need from the county and they are failing us as parents.”
News4Jax reached out to the school district to share these parents’ concerns but had not heard back as of publication.