Sick Sonoma third-grader told she had to finish testing, mom says

A third-grader with 102.3-degree fever and a confirmed case of influenza type A still had to go to Sonoma Elementary School to finish state testing, her mother says.

“They didn’t care,” Glorymar Tellez said Wednesday after dropping her 9-year-old off at a relative’s home to spend the rest of her day in bed. “I really could care less if she scores a zero. My concern is her well-being,” she said.

Erika Nataliah Tellez had been out sick since March 9, nearly a week, with high fever, body aches and pneumonia, Tellez said. “It’s just like the symptoms you get with any flu, only harder,” she said.

Tellez took her daughter to an urgent care center Monday and doctors swabbed her throat. The swab confirmed the girl had influenza A, the virus variety most associated with serious outbreaks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

All of this Tellez said she told a Sonoma school secretary during two phone calls Wednesday. During each call, the secretary stressed it was the last day of testing and essential the girl come and finish.

During the second call, Tellez said, “She put me on hold to talk to the principal, then came back and said the principal said that they would isolate her while she takes her test, which didn’t happen.”

Erika sat off in a corner of a roomful of testing students from about 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., her mother said. She gave her daughter a face mask to wear as a precaution for other students.

Asked about the incident, Modesto City Schools responded via email that schools ran into a deadline to finish a specific part of the test.

“Thursday and Friday, March 16-17, is scheduled downtime for the CAASPP site, and we are on spring break next week, making today the last day to complete the performance task for some students,” wrote Becky Fortuna, district public information officer, Wednesday.

“To offer students the opportunity to finish the performance task, the school called the homes of students who were marked absent and whose last day to complete the performance task is today. Staff felt it was important to explain to families, especially those with chronic attendance issues, that this was the last day to complete the performance task and asked if it were possible for the students to come to school to complete that portion of the test,” Fortuna said.

District attendance policies do not change during test days, she said.

The Modesto City Schools Conduct Code & Information Handbook gives extensive guidance on penalties for missing school, but does not appear to have any guidance on when it is advisable to stay home. The district’s after-school and preschool programs, however, forbid children with fever or contagious diseases from attending. Typically schools ask that parents keep students home while they have a fever and for 24 hours after.

Fortuna said the student would not have faced consequences, outside of a bad test score, if she had not complied.

This story was originally published March 15, 2017 at 4:35 PM with the headline "Sick Sonoma third-grader told she had to finish testing, mom says."