‘If you’re sick, stay home’: Iberia Parish School Board adopts new COVID policy

Published 6:00 am Wednesday, February 23, 2022

Board member Brad Norris makes a point during Monday’s special meeting while Board President Dan LeBlanc listens.

The Iberia Parish School Board adopted a COVID-19 policy on Monday that removes the quarantine and contact tracing requirements the school district has been implementing during the pandemic.

This policy was adopted by a unanimous vote during a special meeting.

Legal counsel Wayne Landry said the policy, which has a section regarding students and another regarding employees, comes after a proclamation by Gov. John Bel Edwards on Feb. 15 that removed mandatory quarantine and contact tracing policies for educational facilities in the state. Landry said the proclamation says that school districts can follow Center for Disease Control guidelines if they so choose.

The same day as the governor’s proclamation, the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education also revised its suggested guidelines to say the same.

“It’s my opinion basically that the school board, as far as masking and testing go, you’re allowed to follow CDC if you want to and I don’t know of anything that says you have to,” Landry said.

Superintendent Carey Laviolette said several south Louisiana school districts have voted to adopt similar policies to the one the Iberia school board voted on, including Lafayette and St. Martin school districts.

The adopted policy removes the quarantine and contact tracing requirements that the school district has been using during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The policy states that students experiencing COVID-like symptoms will be sent home and remain in isolation rooms until picked up from school. Those sent home should get tested or seek an evaluation by a healthcare provider, and a positive test shall require a quarantine of five days.

“To sum it up, our policy will virtually say if you’re sick, stay home,” Laviolette said. “Principals will no longer be contact tracing, looking at video cameras, looking at class schematics to see who’s in close contact. We’re going to go with if you have a fever, you should stay home.”

Landry added that the policies implemented during the pandemic have put a severe strain on administrators, which would be alleviated with the new policy.

“Education is not going on because of all these extra things the principals have to do,” Landry said. “It’s not going to make the schools less safe, teachers and principals are always going to do what’s in the best interest of their students, so I feel comfortable with it.”

Laviolette also said that the time was perfect to consider such a move. The superintendent said 12 students out of the 11,000 were either with COVID-19 or suspected to have it, along with only two employees.