In the last two days, Trigg Primary Schools and its nurses have reiterated the need to keep children home if they exhibit two or more specific symptoms.
These include coughing, runny noses, sore throats, stomach aches, overall general discomfort and fever.
This isn’t a new set of guidelines implemented by the school system, nor is it a conclusion to which
Trigg Primary nurses arrived.
According to Sarah Elliott, secretary to Superintendent Bill Thorpe and community education coordinator for Trigg County Schools, these health guidelines were not only a part of the “Back to School” guidance issued to parents by the main office, but they were the same guidelines issued to the Commonwealth of Kentucky from the Kentucky Board of Education — as the rise of COVID-19 and its Delta variant encroached with the start of the 2021-22 school year.
As incidence rates have continued to climb in all 120 counties, recent online reminders from the school system have been nothing more than continued updates and gentle nudges to keep kids safe.
In the last few days, Elliott has reuploaded the school’s COVID-19 tracking dashboard to the district website (trigg.ky.k12.us), and numbers aren’t concerning as of yet. Across the entire campus and as of Tuesday morning, 82 students are quarantined from contact tracing, as is one district staff member. There are currently 13 active cases among students and 21 who have already recovered. There are no active cases among staff, and two have already recovered.
One of the bigger questions the district could be facing in the coming weeks, however, is the difference between COVID-19 symptoms, and similar respiratory issues that often arrive with allergies.
Elliott noted that newer symptoms will be what draws a school nurse’s attention, and that the familiarity between staff and students helps make clear diagnoses and decisions.
Like many schools across the Commonwealth, Trigg County has an up-to-date way to educate its students at home and clear plans to avoid absenteeism.
Elliott said students staying at home with symptoms simply helps stop the spread.
