New Jersey’s school quarantine rules (ever changing) are causing havoc in many school districts, and one superintendent isn’t hiding his opinion.
“Here’s a perfect example of the ridiculousness of school quarantines in NJ right now,” tweeted Freehold Regional High School District Superintendent Charles Sampson on Monday. “Often students who are quarantined as close contacts must remain remote yet siblings who often share the same bedrooms are allowed to come to school. Make sense to anyone? Need test to stay.”
–
Here's a perfect example of the ridiculousness of school quarantines in NJ right now. Often students who are quarantined as close contacts must remain remote yet siblings who often share the same bedrooms are allowed to come to school. Make sense to anyone? Need test to stay.
— Charles Sampson (@FRHSDSup) December 13, 2021
At the moment, all of New Jersey is under a code “orange” which means there’s a 14-day quarantine rule for students who test positive even if they’re vaccinated; the 14-day quarantine also applies to unvaccinated close contacts. Vaccinated kids don’t need to quarantine if they’re close contacts but they’re supposed to test, and the quarantine period is apparently different if the unvaccinated person at issue is exposed to a COVID-19 positive person with whom they reside.
Confusing? You bet, but as the Freehold super points out, there are absurd outcomes because of the way the rules are constructed. There’s an added problem: early Omicron data found 80% of those infected were vaccinated.
Sampson isn’t a shrinking violet; he previously criticized the Murphy Administration reopening bait-and-switch for the fall 2020 semester.
Nearly 5,000 new student cases were reported for the week of December 5th along with almost 1,200 new staff cases despite a statewide masking mandate.
–
