*Update* SWR Closes High School, Quarantines Over 100 Students Due to Recent...

*Update* SWR Closes High School, Quarantines Over 100 Students Due to Recent Gathering

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Shoreham-Wading River High School is located at 250A Route 25A in Shoreham. File photo by Kevin Redding

*Update* The Shoreham-Wading River school district announced it was closing the high school through Nov. 11, and planned to reopen Thursday Nov. 12.

Shoreham-Wading River school district officials have quarantined 110 students plus eight staff members after two students were tested positive for COVID-19. Officials said those positive tests came after a recent get-together among students.

SWR Superintendent Gerard Poole released a letter to parents Thursday, Oct. 29 informing them that the three students “all attended a weekend social gathering of students.” The district was notified about the positive tests Wednesday night.

Officials closed the high school, and later that day announced the building would also be closed Friday, Oct. 30. The school will continue learning using online distance learning, and students are required to log into their teacher’s Google Classroom at the start of each period to join the class and click on the Google Meet code.  The schedule can be found in the Distance Learning plan which is posted in the Re-Opening section of the District webpage. 

“What students do over the weekend and after school matters,” Poole wrote in his letter to parents. “As we have found out, it impacts our ability to remain open daily for all students.”

The district worked with the Suffolk County Department of Health to conduct contact tracing. Any student that has tested positive is currently under quarantine as well as their family members, which would include school age children as well.

With the additions of the 118 quarantined, the district said there are now a full 125 students and staff members asked to isolate themselves. The New York State School Report Card, which tracks the number of positive cases in districts, reads there have been a total of five positive tests in the district since it opened in September.

Students who tested positive are not allowed to return to school until the DOH gives the go-ahead, Pooles letter stated.

“With the Halloween weekend approaching, children may need an additional reminder about the importance of implementing COVID-19 health precautions at all times and the importance of avoiding large social gatherings,” the superintendent said in his letter. “In order for our schools to remain open and for the health of all students, it is my hope that any large social gatherings that may have been planned for the upcoming weekend are canceled.”