6 Hilton Head Island High School students have contracted COVID-19. What we know
Six Hilton Head Island High School students have contracted COVID-19, according to an email sent Tuesday from principal Steve Schidrich to students and parents.
Schidrich wrote that none of the students was in the school building on Monday, which marked the first day of hybrid face-to-face classes for Beaufort County School District.
According to Schidrich’s email and district spokeswoman Candace Bruder, all of these students tested positive for the virus or started showing symptoms between Sept. 30 and Oct. 5, “before school began.”
Five more students are quarantining because they were identified as close contacts, Schidrich wrote.
At Hilton Head Island High, 66% of students are attending hybrid classes, meaning they’ll go to the school building two days per week and learn remotely three days per week. The other 34% are continuing virtual-only instruction, which began Sept. 8.
James Thompson, a parent to a ninth-grader who will begin hybrid in-person classes on Thursday, called the news unsurprising.
“I was very shocked that the school mentioned nothing about taking precautions to maybe shut the school down for two weeks and get data on that incubation period,” he said.
“I know they weren’t on campus, but if these kids can get it and school hasn’t even started, what could happen in the future?”
Hilton Head Island High made headlines last month when a football coach and a football player tested positive for coronavirus.
As a result, the entire J.V. and varsity teams were quarantined in two waves, along with two coaching staff, for a total of 61 people in quarantine.
The first group of 18 close contacts ended their quarantine last Monday, and the second group of 43 ended their quarantine on Friday.
In total, four district high schools — Hilton Head Island, Bluffton, May River and Beaufort High — have reported widespread quarantines stemming from extracurriculars, with approximately 200 people asked to quarantine as a result.
This story was originally published October 7, 2020 at 2:53 PM.