A second home-school co-op in Cherokee County — Compass Prep Academy — has temporarily shut down after learning it had “secondary” contact with the teenager who was diagnosed earlier this week with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, the county’s public school system announced Thursday.
The teenager attended classes at Living Science Academy, which also has temporarily closed.
The Georgia Department of Public Health has asked students who shared classes with the teen to “self-quarantine in an abundance of caution,” Cherokee schools spokeswoman Barbara Jacoby said.
Some students who attend classes at Compass Prep and Living Science Academy have siblings who attend the county’s public school system, Jacoby added. “We’re communicating daily with DPH officials, and they are not recommending any … school closures at this time,” she said.
Located in an industrial area near Holly Springs, Compass Prep appeared empty Thursday afternoon. The lights were out, and nobody answered the door. The school issued a letter to its parents Wednesday, saying the Fulton County teen did not attend Compass Prep. However, he did attend class with the child of one of Compass Prep’s teachers.
“Our staff member’s child is now exhibiting symptoms,” the letter says. “In addition, another staff member carpools with people who had direct contact with the student that tested positive. Our belief is that our contact is all secondary.”
The letter adds that Compass Prep will remain closed until March 17, allowing it to “better protect our families and to sanitize the facility thoroughly.”
There are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Cherokee, a state Health Department spokeswoman said Thursday.
About 20 students attended the same classes with the teen at Living Science, but none have reported symptoms of COVID-19, the school’s founders said Thursday. The school announced after the teen’s diagnosis this week that it would voluntarily remain closed until March 12.
“No other sick kids reported,” said Lance Davis, who started Living Science with his wife, Penney, in the basement of their home before moving to a bigger location. “The kids themselves are fine. One kid says, ‘I’m glad I’m off for a week. Ha, Ha.’ The other kids are saying, ‘This is terrible. We have got to do work online.’”
The Christian home-school study center serves about 200 students on its suburban Cherokee campus.
Penney Davis said she learned directly from teenage boy’s mother Thursday that he and his family are “fine.”
“We are collegiate in our style. Students come to classes and then leave,” she said. “He only took two classes. Therefore, the number of people he could have possibly been around was very limited.”
She added there is “no hype at the school. The hype is all outside.”
“People are getting scared, and they don’t need to be,” she said. “They need to understand how this virus transmits. And it doesn’t transmit because you are in a building 500 yards away from where somebody was yesterday.”
Staff writer Helena Oliviero contributed to this report.
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