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March 25, 2020 - 2:45 PM
Staff and students who attend Vernon's Clarence Fulton Secondary School have been ordered to self-isolate for 14 days as they may have been exposed to an individual who has tested positive for COVID-19.
A notice from Interior Health, dated March 23, states both staff and pupils may had been exposed to the virus on March 12 and must self-quarantine for 14 days.
Vernon resident Marcy Kennedy's daughter attends Fulton Secondary and said she's not really surprised by the news and says her daughter is healthy, as is the rest of the family.
"I assume we’ve all been exposed at some time to it," Kennedy said. "Whether it's grocery shopping, or family or friends or people in the community... it doesn’t surprise me at all."
Kennedy said the notice cements the reality of the current situation, and the main difference is most people will not get a notice if and when they are exposed.
She has a common-sense approach to dealing with the current situation and her family had been following all the guidelines long before getting the notice, she said.
"We stay at home,” she said. "We’re being safe and we’re making sure we’re not the problem in the community... I’m going to do my best that we are not transmitters of any illness."
Kennedy said her daughter is a homebody and has barely left the house in the last two weeks after sports got cancelled. Her daughter wasn't actually at school on March 12, and spring break started the following day.
She doesn't dismiss the seriousness of the current situation but says the notice has not made her more worried about the current situation.
"I’m cautious for my family as a mother always is," she said. "(The) worry is in the what if? Where are we at with this? That notice does not make me any more worried. Not one bit."
She is pleased Interior Health and School District 22 have informed everybody and does not point any blame at Fulton which she said is a great school.
As the notice from Interior Health said people must self-quarantine for 14 days from March 12, the mandated period of self-isolation is almost over.
Kennedy said it won't make a difference, as her daughter has followed all the advice to stay home anyway.
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