Great Bend High School volleyball coach Shelly Duvall addressed the Barton County Commission Monday morning with concerns on a large quarantine order that sidelined her team this past weekend.
A student-athlete that was already in quarantine, tested positive for COVID-19 last Thursday, Sept. 17. The student was a member of the junior varsity (JV) volleyball team. A quarantine order was issued Saturday, Sept. 19 for the entire volleyball team, 27 girls including the varsity squad.
Duvall says her volleyball team received notice about the quarantine during competition Saturday and was removed from play after receiving word. Duvall could understand eight students being quarantined because of their interaction with the athlete on the JV team, but did not understand why the varsity team should be affected.
"What I am not understanding is this is occurring, but then we look at the classroom that this certain child was in," said Duvall. "She was in a P.E. class of 60 kids that are not in masks but only two of those students were quarantined. But we quarantined 27 volleyball girls that are in an open gym, in masks, for two hours during practice."
Barton County Health Director Karen Winkelman told Commissioners that the Health Department is charged with contacting only one representative from the Great Bend school district. Winkelman stated the spokesperson for USD 428 is Superintendent Khris Thexton. Winkelman explained the recommended quarantine order for the volleyball team and that it was Thexton that made the final decision.
While Thexton agreed, he also stated receiving a recommendation from Health Department hasn’t always felt like an option for one person.
"When the Health Department says it is their recommendation and I don't follow that recommendation, what kind of situation does that put myself, students and district in?" said Thexton. "It is not about assigning blame on who does what. Yes, it is my job to make that call, but I'm not making that call based on a whim I have. I'm relying on the Health Department and the medical community."
Thexton also noted the school nurses were notified of the situation and they created a list of students that should receive the recommended quarantines. Thexton says the list the school nurses gave to the Health Department was not carried out. Barton County chose to place quarantine orders on all the volleyball teams.
Duvall and Thexton asked the county for better communication and that contact tracing could be handled by school nurses rather than the Health Department.
Listen below to the entire discussion from the GBHS volleyball team quarantine topic at the Barton County Commission meeting Sept. 21, 2020.