WINDSOR, Colo. (KDVR) — A public school district in Weld County has a new policy about disciplining students who break rules related to the coronavirus.
Weld Re-4, which serves Windsor and Severance, announced the new policy Friday, after a student at Windsor Middle School tested positive for COVID-19. Dozens of students and staff who may have had contact must now quarantine.
Superintendent Dan Seegmiller sent students and their families a message that reads in part:
“Moving forward if your child is awaiting a COVID-19 test, he or she must stay home until you receive the results. This is now included in the scope of Weld RE-4 district policy JKD/JKE-E (grounds for suspension/expulsion) as indicated in red. We will be applying this to any instance where: (1) a student comes to school in-person aware that he/she has tested positive for COVID-19 and does not disclose that information to the district and/or (2) a student comes to school in-person while awaiting COVID-19 test results.”
A number of other Colorado school districts also have students who’ve tested positive for COVID-19. For many districts, this was the first week of class.
“Unfortunately, I think this is just the environment that we’re going to have to live in,” said Dr. Glen Mays, the chair and a professor in the Department of Health Systems, Management and Policy at the Colorado School of Public Health.
The University of Colorado Boulder begins classes next week. The university has created a dashboard to track COVID-19 cases. As of Friday, there were 13 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
CU Boulder also updated its student Code of Conduct. Students can now be disciplined for not following public health guidelines.
