DeSoto ISD closes elementary school campus for two days following teacher’s death

The Meadows Elementary School in DeSoto ISD closed its campus Thursday and Friday of last week following the death of a teacher, school officials said.

In a note on DeSoto ISD’s website, Superintendent D’Andre Weaver said that while the district did “not know the full circumstances surrounding the teacher’s passing, we do know that the teacher was under an administrative quarantine.”

In an email, a spokesperson for the school district said that “the administrative quarantine does not denote a positive diagnosis of COVID-19; instead the employee may have been exposed or demonstrated symptoms and was home awaiting testing or results.”

To mourn their colleague, and to “regroup mentally and emotionally to effectively serve students,” The Meadows Elementary teachers worked from home Thursday and Friday. “District leadership is extremely mindful of and sensitive to the mental and emotional toll that teaching during the pandemic may elicit for staff,” said district communications director Tiffanie Blackmon-Jones.

It’s been a challenging year for The Meadows Elementary community, she said. “Earlier in the year, two other employees lost their spouses (causes of death are unconfirmed) and then the district also lost our assistant choir director last month.”

Students continued learning remotely on the two days when campus was closed last week. Weaver said in his note that custodial staff also used that time to “continue their on-going deep cleaning process of the facility.”

The district provided counseling support and resources to students and staffers, Blackmon-Jones said.

As of Tuesday afternoon the district’s online COVID-19 dashboard showed one active lab-confirmed case of COVID-19 reported among employees at The Meadows.