Five students in quarantine after 1st day of school in Alabama

Saraland High School

Construction activity on the front of the new Saraland High School is shown Thursday, Dec. 3, 2009, in Saraland, Ala. The school opened in January 2010. (Press-Register, Mike Kittrell) MPR METRO

Five students in a south Alabama high school are now in quarantine after coming in close contact with an individual who tested positive for COVID-19 after the first day of school on Thursday.

“We had an individual who last night started developing symptoms of COVID-19,” Saraland City Schools Superintendent Aaron Milner told AL.com. “They had contracted it from a family member, it appears.”

Milner said the individual called the principal of Saraland High, just north of Mobile, on Friday morning to report the illness. After receiving a positive COVID-19 test, the individual reported it to the school.

The district reported the case to the Mobile health department, he said. “In consultation with them, we then began working on contact tracing.”

Through careful tracing and examination of seating charts, they determined the individual had come into close contact with only five students at the high school. Those students were sent home, where they will now do distance learning during the 14-day quarantine.

All five of those students wore masks at school, Milner said.

Milner said faculty and staff have worked hard to social distance and set up a safe environment at school.

He said it was remarkable considering the circumstances. “For the whole day, when you consider that we had some 3,030 individuals in all of our schools, due to our spreading out as much as possible, and we had only five that met the (close contact) criteria.”

About the students, Milner said, “By all indications, they’re a little upset about getting sent home.”

“We could not have asked for a more supportive response from (the students’) guardians and parents,” he said.

Milner said he is not surprised, and his faculty and staff are not shaken by the news.

“This is making news because we were one of the first districts to open. It’s going to be a broken record for this school year.”

Saraland joined Enterprise City on Thursday as the first two school systems to restart in-person classes in Alabama. Three more districts opened on Friday.

“This is just a challenge there we’re going to deal with,” Milner said. “We’re going to continue to analyze cases, and if we need to make adjustments, we will.”

Related: Alabama school system has first day of class: Here’s what it looked like

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