The Brown County High School boys soccer team is being directed to quarantine until Sept. 9 after a person involved with the soccer program reported testing positive for COVID-19.
District leaders contacted parents of soccer players late this afternoon to inform them that their sons were possibly exposed to the virus and that they needed to quarantine for 14 days. That includes keeping them out of school buildings.
Counting starts on the date of their last contact with the team, which was last Wednesday, Aug. 26, said Superintendent Laura Hammack.
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It is possible that a “close contact” of a person who is positive for COVID-19 could develop the virus within 2 to 14 days of contact, the Centers for Disease Control reports.
Brown County Schools does not mandate that children be tested before they return to school if they were close contacts of someone who tested positive and never developed symptoms themselves, Hammack said. The testing decision is up to parents. However, students must quarantine for 14 days from the date of exposure before returning to school, according to the Indiana State Department of Health.
If a person associated with this team does develop symptoms during that 14-day period, the clock would start over again from the date symptoms first appeared, Hammack said. (The district is using this flow chart to determine what happens next in different situations.)
According to district policy, team members who develop symptoms will need to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test in order to return to athletics.
This is the first instance of students or staff testing positive for the virus in Brown County Schools since the school year started on Aug. 5.
A new COVID-19 testing site is opening at the Brown County Music Center on Wednesday, Sept. 2, and will be testing children and adults at no charge.
