LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) — A mother is pleading with schools to make an adjustment after all four of her kids tested positive for coronavirus. Her children attend Evangeline Elementary in Lafayette.
The Lafayette Parish School System started their first two days of the school year with a hybrid schedule,
and the mother I spoke to thinks adjusting back to half capacity could lessen the spread.
“The school board just needs to reconsider and bring it back to the table,” Raven Dalcour.
She now has three of her kids and a nephew home with their grandma. Each one of the Evangeline Elementary students tested positive for the virus; however, only one showed symptoms, a headache. The others were asymptomatic.
“The kids really don’t know what COVID is, and we don’t know how many kids are sitting in class right now exposed to COVID, and we would never know,” Dalcour argued.
Even though most of her kids had no sign of carrying the virus, the latest statistics from the Louisiana Department of Health show children ages 5-17 have risen to the 2nd most infectious age group behind young adults. In every previous surge, school-age children were the second least infectious age group besides babies and infants.
Dalcour isn’t suggesting shutting schools down. She pulled her kids from the virtual learning last year because of their grades, but she does think something else should be done to keep safety first.
“We don’t want our kids not to be successful but maybe the A and B days because the first day and the second day they started school this year, it was A and B,
and there wasn’t much children in class. Why can’t we continue to have that?”, Dalcour asked.
The Lafayette Parish School Board did vote on extending their A and B days hybrid schedule to September 15 before the start of the school year, but the motion failed with only two of nine board members in favor of it.
Lafayette Parish School Board member Justin Centanni said, “I could not be more opposed to this.”
“One voice is not going to be heard. We need every parent to voice their opinion,” Dalcour urged, “Next school board meeting, I plan to be there because my kids’ lives matter.”
News 10 reached out to the board members who supported extending the hybrid schedule, and they have heard no discussion of a similar motion being made at next week’s meeting.