Too many teachers/staff with COVID-19 force a Fulton school online

An elementary school in southern Fulton County has paused in-person learning because too many teachers and staff are quarantining due to COVID-19.

Fulton County Schools announced Wednesday that College Park Elementary would remain in remote learning through Friday, Dec. 18.

“At this time, no additional positive cases have been confirmed,” according to the district’s Wednesday post on Facebook.

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Coronavirus-related closures of individual schools have been sporadic but not uncommon, but it is rare for the district to specify that the number of cases among teachers/staff is causing the closure.

Before the district started welcoming students back to physical classrooms, a group of teachers protested the return and claimed it was unsafe.

District officials first moved College Park Elementary to virtual-only learning on Monday, Dec. 7.

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The latest data shows at least 55 students/staff at the school are quarantining due to the virus. District data also shows that two College Park Elementary students/staff had tested positive.

Officials have said that the numbers are limited to what contact tracing can link to the schools and is not an exact number because not everyone participates in contact tracing.

In all, 293 students/staff were quarantining districtwide as of Sunday, Dec. 6.

The district is close to wrapping up its survey to see which families are comfortable sending their children to in-person schooling for the next semester. Officials said they would review the results until Dec. 18.

Dr. Fauci Urges U.S. to ‘Overcome’ COVID-19 Denial. Dr. Anthony Fauci spoke about COVID-19 at the 'Wall Street Journal' CEO Council summit on Dec. 8. . During the summit, Dr. Fauci addressed the “substantial proportion” of people who think COVID-19 is a “hoax.” . Trouble is, you go to different parts of the country, and even when the outbreak is clear and hospitals are on the verge of being overrun, there are a substantial proportion of the people who still think that this is not real, that it's fake news …, Anthony Fauci, via CNN. He called it “extraordinarily frustrating” that people aren’t adhering to COVID-19 safety measures. . Dr. Fauci went on to urge people to “overcome” their denial of COVID-19 and work “as a nation” to slow the spread. . We've got to overcome that and pull together as a nation uniformly with adhering to these public health measures … we feel strongly that we will be able to have a significant impact. , Anthony Fauci, via CNN. On Dec. 8, the United States surpassed 15 million total reported cases of COVID-19, although experts believe the number of actual COVID-19 infections is much higher. That means that roughly one in 22 Americans has tested positive for the virus. Johns Hopkins University data reports that at least 286,189 Americans have died from COVID-19.

About the Author

Ben Brasch

Ben Brasch is the reporter tasked with keeping Fulton County government accountable. The Florida native moved to Atlanta for a job with The AJC. If there's something important to you going on in Fulton, he wants to know about it. Help him better metro Atlanta by dropping a line, anonymously or otherwise.

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