Safekey students at school with COVID cases barred from rec centers
The City of Henderson is prohibiting Lamping Elementary School students who are registered in the Safekey program from attending activities at city recreational centers while the school is operating under distance education following multiple COVID-19 cases at the school.
The city cannot risk admitting the students to the recreational centers because it doesn’t know who tested positive for COVID-19 or was exposed, city spokeswoman Kathleen Richards explained Tuesday. The move, she said, is “to prevent possible COVID exposure to other patrons using city facilities.”
The city’s procedure for any Safekey student who’s exposed to someone who tests positive for COVID-19 is “to notify the parents and advise that their child remain in quarantine for 10 days,” Richards said via email. The ban applies to recreation programs and pools during the 10-day quarantine period, unless students provide proof of a recent negative test result, she said.
Kids who are not enrolled in Safekey, a before- and after-school program run by Henderson at Clark County District campuses within the city limits, can freely attend activities at the rec centers because the city has no way of identifying them as Lamping students.
The city doesn’t know who tested positive due to “privacy protection” under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and “therefore what students may have been exposed,” Richards said.
All Lamping Elementary staff and students were switched to distance learning on Aug. 17 after “multiple individuals” tested positive for the disease caused by the new coronavirus. The school is expected to return to in-person teaching on Aug. 30.
Safekey is not operating at Lamping Elementary while the school is in distance education, Richards said. About 60 students are registered for the program, she said.
Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2921. Follow @julieswootton on Twitter.