A 10-year-old Virginia girl died from COVID-19 complications just days after she was appointed by a substitute teacher as a ‘class nurse,’ though the school maintains that she never came into contact with kids who had COVID symptoms.
Teresa Sperry was named class nurse at Hillpoint Elementary School in Suffolk on September 21. She died on September 27, according to the Virginian-Pilot.
Teresa was not vaccinated because children under the age of 12 weren’t eligible for a vaccine until a month later.
Suffolk Public Schools conducted an investigation into Sperry’s death, resulting in a three-page report obtained by Nicole and Jeff Sperry through a Freedom of Information Act request.
The report did not find an instance in which Teresa came into contact with the someone at the school who may have had the virus, but her parents say the school’s investigation was incomplete and that they weren’t told about her role as school nurse.
‘They made her do this job without parental consent,’ Jeff Sperry told the paper.
Teresa is one of 18 children under 19 who has died from COVID-19 in Virginia, according to the Virginia Department of Health.
More than 250,000 children have been diagnosed with the disease, and close to 1,500 have been hospitalized with serious illnesses.
Teresa Sperry, 10, was named class nurse at Hillpoint Elementary School in Suffolk on September 21. She complained of a headache the next day and died on September 27
Teresa (center) was unvaccinated, as children under the age of 12 weren’t eligible for a vaccine until a month later
Suffolk Public Schools says there was no instance in which Teresa came into contact with COVID-19 as part of her role as class nurse. Above, Hillpoint Elementary in Suffolk
‘Having a child walk students to the nurse during the pandemic? It is nonsense. It is insane. Had anybody asked me or informed me, I would have said no.’
According to the school district’s report, the school nurse and the teacher, a long-term substitute, said that Teresa walked one student with an arm injury to the nurse’s clinic on September 21.
Teresa walked the student back to the clinic on the same day for an inhaler.
The next day, she went to the nurse herself complaining about a headache, according to WAVY.
The nurse logged her temperature at 97.4 degrees, according to the Virginian-Pilot. Teresa rested in the clinic before she went back to class, according to a clinic referral.
As part of her job as class nurse, Teresa had also walked a student with an injured ankle to the clinic.
On September 29, Teresa’s teacher wrote to Hillpoint’s principal: ‘She walked one student on Wednesday who twisted her ankle on the playground to the office. I had to stay outside with the other 24 students. I had her hand out band aides [sic]. I never sent her with a sick child.’
‘If you print it out, it is three pages,’ mother Nicole Sperry said. ‘If they really wanted to do contact tracing they would have done more’
The nurse said Teresa didn’t go into the clinic, according to the report. Clinic referrals state that no students with COVID symptoms were sent to the clinic between September 7 and September 23.
Suffolk Public Schools Superintendent Dr. John B. Gordon III told WAVY, ‘It is true that the student had the job of nurse, but that was for Band-Aids or bags of ice for kids who fell on the playground, etcetera.’
Jeff and Nicole Sperry believe the investigation wasn’t thorough enough.
‘I feel that the investigation report is incredibly incomplete,’ the dad told the Virginian-Pilot.
‘How do they know who she was around while she sat outside the nurse’s clinic? They did not look at the cameras. There is nothing in it about interviewing the security guard, who would have seen my daughter going to the clinic. They did not interview anyone else that would have seen her.’
Teresa is one of 18 children under 19 who has died from COVID-19 in Virginia, according to the Virginia Department of Health
‘If you print it out, it is three pages,’ Nicole said. ‘If they really wanted to do contact tracing they would have done more.’
The school did not provide the document to the parents, who had to file a FOIA request to get it.
‘They could call us to ask if there was permission for them to go to her funeral, but they can’t call and tell us this? This is more important than calling to see who can come to the funeral,’ Jeff Sperry told WAVY.
‘I want to be able to just ask her,’ he added. ‘But I can’t. She’s gone.’
The district maintains that Teresa did not come into contact with COVID at the school before she died.
‘Students who attend Hillpoint Elementary School who are suspected of having COVID symptoms are reported to the nurse or office with a phone call to indicate a suspected Code C,’ the school district told the Virginian-Pilot in a statement.
