After School summer camp closes temporarily out of caution
Shawn Cunningham | Jul 15, 2020 | Comments 3
By Shawn Cunningham
© 2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC
Campers explore on the first day at Go WILD. Photo provided
According to Go WILD camp director Venissa White, the child did not attend the camp this week and will be tested for Covid-19. The action, White wrote in an email to parents, was taken out of “an abundance of caution” in light of recent exposures in the area. The email made it clear no one at the camp has tested positive for coronavirus so far.
White went on to say that the camp would contact parents on Saturday to check on the health of their campers, and make a decision on Sunday whether or not to reopen on Monday. White said she wanted to get out ahead of the questions and that she has spent a lot of time answering and undoing rumors. She said that the program is trying to make sure every family has the tools they need to make decisions for their children.
The exposures White referred to in the email were at the Londonderry Town Office and the Chester municipal pool. Since then dozens of antigen tests of residents of the mountain towns including Londonderry have been positive for the virus. A pop up testing site is taking place in Londonderry today — July 15 — and Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine has said his department will assess the need for more testing in the area.
The Go WILD (Wilderness Inspired Learning Daily) camp was designed to be conducted outdoors at a park in Ludlow, following the guidance of the Vermont Health Department and the Agency of Education. The programs are conducted in smaller groups with distancing and facial coverings as needed.
Filed Under: Covid 19 Coverage • Education • Education News
There are MORE cases because we are testing now. We could actually be in a decline and we wouldn’t even know it because our testing capabilities were significantly less at the beginning then they are now. And no, we need schools open because working parents need to get back to work. I have 3 children and my girlfriend stays home with them because they laid her off to all of this. She does get the extra money from the c.a.r.e.s act but that going to end and so is her unemployment. We need to have 2 incomes in our house in order to make ends meet. School, HAS to open.
And why were the baseball tournaments behind the antique center in Chester allowed to happen? Town officials/police could have required social distancing or masks but nothing. If the town did not realize they were going on what else has escaped their notice?
Can we please now finally address that it is not safe to reopen school buildings? Can school leaders just stand up and announce that for now, remote learning will remain in place and when cases go down, or there’s a vaccine, or some other set of standards that make sense occur, the buildings will reopen?
Why do they not seem to recognise that they closed the buildings when there were LESS cases, and now there are more and they’re reopening? Parents and families need to make plans–just make an announcement that the buildings will stay shut for now. This is getting ridiculous.