Juniper Ridge parent felt better communication could’ve prevented COVID-19 spread

She only found out from the parent and not the school nor Interior Health. While there is nothing that’s been officially reported, Johnston knows of at least eight positive cases at Juniper Ridge Elementary.

Since notifications were officially made public on Tuesday, Interior Health notes there were exposures for six days from Sept. 16-23. Dianna is happy the exposures are now listed on Interior Health’s website, but she would still like to see the school send out notifications to families.

“I have a sneaky suspicion that it won’t because the cases were last week, although I think some are still rolling in. Maybe we’ll get one now,” said Johnston. “But there are still people, there’s still the Little Buddies who were in my daughter’s classroom and their parents don’t know. So we’re looking at a possible exposure there, possible sibling exposure throughout the school.”

District superintendent Rhonda Nixon says while parents are finding out about positive cases from other parents, the district cannot verify the cases until Interior Health confirms them, thus making it more difficult to get the information out to parents quickly, Nixon noted.

“Interior Health has reconfirmed to me this morning, because I actually reviewed that with them, if we hear from a parent and we have some proof that there is a positive case, could we not move forward to notification? And [Dr. Silvina Mema] said ‘absolutely no,'” relayed Nixon.

Johnston responded, “This bureaucratic, political crap. It just needs to be a photocopied letter in the office. They fill in the date and they give it people. This 15 steps to get to the parents is what’s causing this spread.”

Nixon says the district and school principals have to wait for IH investigations to concluded, and there is often a lag.

“In this situation, we just all have to get used to it and know that the outcomes have been very positive. One of the things I can share with you is there have been no situations so far [in School District 73], and I’m really glad to say this, of any severe outcomes of our children who have gotten sick,” she said.

It doesn’t bring much comfort to Johnston, who’s also calling for changes to avoid classes sharing gymnasium space and scrapping the reading programs.

SD73 says it’s willing to review its protocols, but at the end of the day it’s taking advice from Interior Health.

by Chad Klassen

Juniper Ridge parent felt better communication could’ve prevented COVID-19 spread

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