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MIAMI (WSVN) - Hundreds of people, consisting of students and teachers at Miami Senior High School, have been forced to quarantine after they were potentially exposed to COVID-19, according to the teacher’s union.
A spokesperson for United of Teachers of Dade said Tuesday night that over 200 students and more than a dozen teachers have been instructed to quarantine after they possibly came into contact with someone who tested positive for the virus.
“We’re very frustrated because we’re seeing a lag in the information that we’re receiving,” union president Karla Hernandez-Mats said. “The administration of the schools are not being as transparent as they can be, and we’re seeing a lag between the department of health in Tallahassee and our dashboard here in Miami-Dade.”
All of the affected students and teachers either work or attend class at the school’s campus, officials said.
According to Miami-Dade County Public School’s dashboard, there are nine COVID-19 cases at the school, including a teacher.
M-DCPS previously told 7News when an employee reports they are positive, the case is immediately added into the dashboard. When students report they have tested positive for COVID-19, it is not added to the dashboard until it is confirmed by the Florida Department of Health.
“I only know that most of my classmates are gone,” said one student heading to school on Wednesday morning. “I don’t know how it is for the rest of the classes, so I’m clueless.”
District officials said anyone who has had close contact with someone who may be positive, even if cases are pending, the district will let the individual know prior to the cases being added to the dashboard.
M-DCPS currently has a total of 276 reported cases consisting of 188 students and 88 employees.
According to the teacher’s union, however, they estimate 300 positive COVID-19 cases and thousands of students and faculty in quarantine.
“County wide, we probably have about 2,000 students under quarantine,” Hernandez-Mats said.
The number under quarantine in the district includes the total from Miami Senior High School plus 400 students from Barbara Goleman Senior High School.
When asked if he had to quarantine recently, Alexander, a 10th grader, said, “Yeah, for like 14 days.”
Said Bonilla, a student at Miami Senior High School, revealed that she was previously told to quarantine after possibly being exposed to someone who had tested positive for the virus.
“I had to stay home for like a week,” she said. “It was just like how it was before.”
In response, M-DCPS officials released a statement that read in part, “M-DCPS notifies all potentially affected individuals and informs students, parents and employees in that particular school community … Families should not rely on the dashboard to learn about cases in their school, nor do they have to. They are notified well ahead of a case being placed on the dashboard.”
However, union leaders said the notifications did not happen quick enough on Tuesday for at least one teacher at Barbara Goleman.
“There is a colleague at that school that left work, went to his second job and then in the evening was told, ‘By the way, you were one of the teachers that was exposed, and now, you need to be in quarantine,'” Hernandez-Mats said. “It’s not happening quick enough.”
District officials are stressing to families that they ensure their contact information is up to date so that they can get in touch if they are potentially exposed.
“As soon as the trace is made and they know what class that the child who might have been exposed, or was in another class with another student who was exposed, they do it really good, so I’m happy,” Maria Garcia, a parent, said. “I’m all for it. She’s in school. She’s happy. She’s doing well, and that’s what’s important.”
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