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A red and white sign erected by Vincentown Village attorney Kit Applegate on the side of his law
follow us on office urging residents to “Keep Our Kids in School” and to vote out the current Southampton Township Board of Education. facebook.com/MedfordUMC
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A sign for Southampton Township Schools, seemingly responding to the “Keep Our Kids in School” campaign by stating “We Keep Kids in School.”
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But that reliance on the county health department, which is headed by County Health Commissioner Herb Conaway, a Democratic state assemblyman representing the 7th Legislative District and an M.D., is one of the things that Applegate has been critical of, asking Michael in a letter handdelivered to her office on Jan. 12, “Why is the district awaiting the recommendation of a county political appointee?”
Applegate said that when he raised the quarantine issue at a recent board of education meeting, the members “looked at me like they had never heard of this before,” then proceeded to vote, 8-1, to continue with the stricter requirement (with the only dissenting vote coming from Board Member Melissa Walker). That decision, the attorney said, was what prompted him to put a red and white sign on the side of his law office urging residents to “keep our kids in school” and to vote out the current board, and to place other signs around town bearing the first part of that message. (The school district has since seemingly responded to Applegate’s sign by posting on its letter board, “We do keep our kids in school.”)
One aspect of the district’s current policy that Applegate said he finds particularly perplexing is why children who haven’t received a full round of COVID shots are being singled out for quarantine when “there is evidence that people who are vaccinated and boosted can be infected as well.”
Asked if she could answer that, Michael said she did not feel comfortable attempting to do so “because I’m not a medical professional” and that Applegate “would have to take that up with the county health department,” adding that she was in favor of “erring on the side of caution.”
But she maintained that “the county and state are in sync with each other and their guidance are one and the same” on the issue of protecting students from being infected by the Coronavirus.
Michael also indicated she concurred with Applegate on the importance of keeping students in school as much as possible, “because when you miss days, you’re missing vital pieces of education.”
“We’re always looking to explore new possibilities so that we can do what’s best for the kids,” she declared.
An attempt by this newspaper to get answers from the county health department was referred to David Levinsky, the official spokesman for Burlington County, who defined the department’s role as being one “to assist districts in answering questions about the guidance the state hands down.”
“If a superintendent has a question, our health department is there to answer it,” said Levinsky, noting that because things have changed over time, such guidance is partly based on the conditions of the virus and how prevalent it is in regard to community spread.
“But we’re not telling districts anything that is not in the (state) guidance,” he maintained. “It is there for the school districts to protect their students, staff and school-based personnel.”
Messages also left at Conaway’s legislative office were unanswered by this newspaper’s press time.
In his letter to Michael, Applegate also pointed out that the decision to make unvaccinated children who had been exposed to COVID stay home instead of giving them the option of being tested wasn’t the first instance in which the Southampton district has chosen to make it more difficult for such pupils to remain in the classroom.
“Several weeks ago, I learned the district was following, not a requirement, but a recommendation of the NJDOH that said the length of quarantine/isolation for a student exposed to COVID should be determined, not on the quality or length of the student’s exposure and not on whether that student tests positive or negative for COVID, but instead on whether the color of Burlington County on a map was red instead of orange. “That a color on a map determined the length of a Southampton student’s quarantine/isolation made (and continues to make) absolutely no sense,” he contended. “I understand that recommendation has since been superseded, but again, it was a recommendation, not a requirement. The district was free to ignore the nonsensical recommendation, but chose not to. And as a consequence, students, including my own children, were kept out of the classroom for longer than necessary.”
He then stated in the letter that he next received a notification via email that the district intended to continue with a 10-day “conventional isolation policy” while the Burlington County Department of Health reviewed a recommendation that was being implemented in other districts that it be shortened to five (which has since been done).
“When I see discretion being used to keep kids out of school and risk harming their education, and in turn their future, it annoys me to no end,” Applegate told Michael in that missive. “I am trying to raise free and independent thinkers. And that means when you encounter something in life that is stupid, makes no sense, and causes unnecessary harm, you step up and say something.”
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