Student with COVID-19 went to graduation while awaiting test results, Alabama school says

A student at an Alabama high school who attended his graduation ceremony last week has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the Associated Press.

A member of the student’s family “had previous tested positive and neither the student nor their family members disclosed the information when asked at the ceremony,” said Decatur City Schools Deputy Superintendent Dwight Satterfield, according to AP.

The student graduated from Austin High School, which held its commencement ceremony on May 21.

According to AL.com, there were 16 nurses on staff who were in charge of checking the students’ temperatures at the ceremony, asking them if anyone they knew or any family members had tested positive or had shown any symptoms.

“In this situation, we were not provided information that would have assisted us not only to protect the public but to protect the spread of this virus, and we didn’t get the information that we needed,” Satterfield told AL.com.

According to AP, graduates were kept 6 feet apart and families were also asked to abide by the same social distancing rules as the students. However, Satterfield said students and families still gathered and hugged each other.

Satterfield still defends the district’s decision to hold an in-person graduation ceremony.

“I will put what we did at graduation against anyone,” Satterfield said, according to AP. “There will be second guessing whether we should have had graduation or not. So be it, that will be a conversation for another day.”

The Morgan County Health Department issued a guidance that anyone who had been exposed to the student in question would be in the incubation period until June 3, KHNT reported.