WASHINGTON — An entire middle school at Leckie Education Campus is in quarantine.
Leckie, located on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, SW in Ward 8, is a school that holds classes from Kindergarten through 8th grade. The elementary classes are in the main building, but the middle school students attend classes in trailers behind the school.
D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) reports an individual, who was last in the building on September 16, tested positive for the coronavirus. A DCPS spokesperson said contact tracers deemed all 95 students in grades 6, 7 and 8 as close contacts of the one positive individual.
“95, Wow that’s a lot!” said one parent, “I don’t even think kids should be in those trailers.”
After students were sent home, a second person tested positive, so the quarantine was extended until Friday, October 1.
DCPS said the students are home learning virtually.
News of the mass quarantine at Leckie comes on the heels of several other Ward 8 schools with high-profile cases. Families at Hart Middle School were just notified Sunday of six positive cases, two weeks ago the entire football team at Anacostia High were sent home and three weeks ago all 129 students in the 6th grade at Johnson middle school were quarantined.
DCPS has now upgraded its COVID policy mandating that student-athletes over the age of 12 be vaccinated by November 1.
DCPS said the principal at Leckie reports all classrooms are equipped with HEPA filters. While it is unclear exactly why 95 students were deemed close contacts to one positive person, DCPS said they did so to “control the spread of COVID-19."
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