They sent their son to school even though he had tested positive for covid-19

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(CNN) -

A family's decision to send their son to school after testing positive for COVID-19 resulted in dozens of canceled Thanksgiving plans for other classmates, according to a California school district.

Parents of an elementary school student knew their son tested positive for the virus but continued to send him to school for seven days, Dr. Brett Geithman, superintendent of the Larkspur-Corte Madera school district in Marin County, told CNN.

The student attends Neil Cummins Elementary School in Corte Madera, about 30 minutes north of San Francisco.

75 students in quarantine

The parents' actions resulted in around 75 classmates being forced into self-quarantine as of November 19.

Geithman told CNN that school officials only learned of the positive case after they were contacted by Marin County Public Health, because it was never reported in the school's database.

The public health department has a process with all laboratories in the area to notify them of new cases.

They then follow up with the school to confirm the student has been in quarantine, Marin County public health official Dr. Matt Willis told CNN.

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"In this case, both the school and public health received inaccurate information from parents, leading to a prolonged interval of exposure," Willis said.

"This is not just a violation of basic ethics, it is a violation of the law," Willis told CNN.

"The violation may result in a fine or criminal prosecution as a misdemeanor. Due to the seriousness of this violation, we have referred the case to the District Attorney."

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Guidelines for Parents

The district has published guidelines that instruct parents on the steps to take if a household member has tested positive for COVID.

"We did not know this positive case existed," Geithman said in a written statement to CNN.

"When we called the family, we found out that the student tested positive, they did not inform the schools, and then they sent the student and his brother to school for seven days."

The Marin County Department of Public Health shared a written statement to CNN that read: "These actions are in violation of the Marin County Student and Family Handbook on COVID-19 Safety and the Isolation and Quarantine Public Health Order of the Marin County, which requires all people who have been diagnosed with Covid-19 to isolate themselves for at least 10 days. "

The department was first informed of the positive case on November 8 by a healthcare provider.

When they began the contact tracing process, the family did not provide the name of the school the boy attends on the first call, Geithman told CNN.

Several attempts were made to ask the family to provide the name of the school, but those calls were not returned, Geithman added.

When the health department finally discovered the name of the school, they notified school officials.

What the school did

Geithman told CNN that Neil Cummins Elementary School staff acted immediately.

They notified all those who were exposed by texting parents on the night of the 18th, asking them to bring their children for testing the next morning.

"The principal, the nurse and I screened approximately 50 students and 10 staff members on the morning of the 19th in our gym," Geithman told CNN.

From the tests, they were left with eight cases in total.

Two of them were the initial child and his brother, while three were suspected of school transmission and the other three, of the home.

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Those students and those exposed were immediately sent to a modified quarantine, which lasts 10 days.

"What this means is that students can still attend school but cannot attend extracurricular activities," Geithman told CNN, "including family reunions or trips."

That quarantine period happened before Thanksgiving week, resulting in dozens of plans canceled.

Reactions between officials and parents

According to CNN affiliate KGO, several parents were shocked to hear what had happened.

But at least one parent, Jilly Martay, told the station she was happy with the way the superintendent handled the situation.

"We have been very successful in having children here every day for over a year and 99% of our families follow the rules and understand them," Geithman told CNN.

"This is an opportunity to see this as a call to action and ask each person to act with integrity. We all depend on each other."

Geithman said this was the district's first classroom-based broadcast.

"Their initial response (from the family) was that they weren't sure about the covid protocols," Geithman said.

"The process that Marin County Public Health ordered the father to go through was to quarantine."

The school district told CNN they took action against the parents, but the details of that punishment remain confidential.

"Since then, they have sent letters of apology to me, the principal and the teachers involved and acknowledged their lack of judgment," Geithman told CNN.

He also noted that all the children recovered from COVID-19 and that there were no serious illnesses in the group.

"This is a community that takes covid protocols very seriously and acts accordingly. This is a unique situation where a family made a terrible decision that affected many students and affected the health and safety of our schools. "Geithman said.

Students and staff are required to wear a face mask in the classroom, according to Geithman.

"If we didn't have strict covid protocols, the consequences could have been much worse."

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