After retreat to Georgia, COVID cases in private Miami high school shot up to nearly 100
When roughly 600 teenagers at a Miami-Dade County private school returned home from a school-sponsored, six-day retreat in Georgia last month, five of them tested positive for COVID-19, as did one teacher, the school said.
Administrators at Westminster Christian School in Palmetto Bay said that prompted them to have all high school students not to return to class in person and learn remotely until after the Labor Day holiday next week.
However, an online snapshot of the school’s COVID-19 dashboard, which was provided to the Miami Herald by several people connected to the school, shows that by Aug. 27, seven days after the students returned home from the six-day “Warrior Week” trip, 99 of Westminster’s high school students —about 1 in 6 — were listed as having COVID. A cumulative total of 113 were shown to have had the virus.
By comparison, about 250,000 students attend traditional Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Since Aug. 13, 72 students have tested positive for novel coronavirus, according to the district’s online dashboard tracking COVID cases.
“It was a super spreader event,” said a parent who wanted to remain anonymous. “There were probably over 100 cases related to the trip. Six were the ones that tested positive at the retreat.”
About 25 of the roughly 600 students who attend Westminster Christian’s high school opted out of the annual event, known as “Warrior Week,” according to the school.
“Everyone who attended submitted negative COVID tests to be able to attend,” said Ana Poveda, the school’s director of communications and marketing.
Poveda did not respond to a question asking if the school connected the cases to the retreat. She said as of Thursday afternoon, the school had nine active cases.
A person is considered clear of COVID, she said, after 10 days have passed since his or her diagnosis and the person receives a negative test for the virus.
The retreat was held at SharpTop Cove, a sprawling, lush property located in the Georgia mountains about an hour outside of Atlanta, run by a nonprofit Christian ministry called Young Life.
Camp representatives were not immediately available to answer whether it had COVID-19 protocols in place at the time of the retreat or whether it does now following the Westminster visit.
A video of this year’s event that was posted on Westminster’s Facebook page about two weeks ago has since been removed. A video on YouTube of the 2019 event (the retreat was not held in 2020 because of the pandemic) showed students riding rides at the Six Flags amusement park in Georgia, dancing and singing at Sharptop Cove, swimming and taking part in various outdoor activities like rafting and playing baseball.
That video, which was linked in the Miami Herald’s Sept. 1 online story on the retreat, was removed from public view from YouTube by Thursday.
Following the publication of the Herald’s story reporting that five students tested positive after the retreat, several people close to the school came forward to reveal cases climbed considerably over the two weeks after the students returned.
“Their COVID dashboard for families showed 74 cases right after the trip in the high school,” the parent said.
Classes started for Westminster’s elementary, middle and high schools on Aug. 9. High schoolers embarked for Georgia on Aug. 15.
Poveda said after five students and one staff member tested positive for COVID, the school’s administration decided to hold high school classes virtually until after Labor Day.
“As a precautionary measure and to enable continuous learning while some students were on quarantine, we temporarily put high school students on Westminster Connect through the Labor Day holiday.”
Poveda has not responded to questions about what day that was, how the students were transported from South Florida to Georgia, and if they had to wear facial coverings on the trip and while there.
The screenshot of the Aug. 27 dashboard showed a total of 13 staff members contracted the coronavirus since classes began. It’s not clear how many of those employees went on the retreat.
In total, about 1,260 students attend Westminster’s elementary, middle and high schools, Poveda said. Elementary and middle schoolers have been back to in-person class since the beginning of the academic year, Poveda said.
“So far, we have had 17 full days of instruction without interruption. We are equipped and prepared to offer remote virtual teaching and learning as needed,” Poveda said in a statement Wednesday. “Westminster is committed to in-person on-campus teaching and learning, accompanied by our full fine arts, athletics, and activities programming.”
This story was originally published September 2, 2021 at 8:49 PM.
