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Utah student ordered to quarantine in school closet after COVID-19 exposure, lawsuit alleges

The student was asked to stay home after the reported exposure. When he came to school, he was put in the closet, the lawsuit alleges.
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Posted at 9:32 AM, Jan 12, 2022
and last updated 2022-01-12 11:34:36-05

A nurse at Wahlquist Junior High School in Farr West quarantined a student in a school storage closet after the student was exposed to COVID-19 through a classmate, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in 2nd District Court.

The student had not demonstrated any symptoms of COVID-19, the lawsuit states. But the nurse had previously informed his mother, Deann Heaton, on Friday, Oct. 30, 2020, that he needed to quarantine after coming in contact with a student who tested positive for more than fifteen minutes.

The teen wasn’t supposed to return to school until Nov. 13, 2020, the nurse said, or Nov. 6, 2020, if he tested negative, according to the complaint. When the mother questioned why the student needed to be held out of school if he had no symptoms, the nurse said the teen could end up hospitalized in an intensive care unit if he had COVID-19, the lawsuit states.

On Monday, Nov. 2, 2020, the student boarded a bus and went to school, where the lawsuit alleges he was stopped, then quarantined in a storage closet during first period. The lawsuit states the student was ordered to remain in the closet, which had no window, without his parents’ authorization.

Read the entire story in the Salt Lake Tribune

This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aim to inform readers across the state.