TUNKHANNOCK, Pa. — Students in the Tunkhannock Area School District are attending classes virtually after a COVID-19 outbreak.
Officials say there are 21 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and another 27 probable cases.
The Tunkhannock Area School District announced Monday that students and teachers would work remotely to complete contact tracing after nearly two dozen positive cases of COVID-19, and just as many probable cases were discovered in the district.
Hearing that school was going to be virtual was not great news for students.
"I'm very surprised. I didn't think there were that many cases there," said seventh-grader Elliot Davies.
"I'm missing my friends, my teacher, and I'm missing, basically, everything," first-grader Grace Rosario said.
Before Pennsylvania's mask mandate, masks were optional but recommended in school and mandatory on the school bus. The district was aware of ten additional cases on Friday, only days into the school year.
"I just find it ironic that Tunkhannock has so many cases and so many problems, where other school districts around Tunkhannock are still opening and managing problems a lot better," Jeffery Rosario said.
"I felt that pretty soon my kids were going to have to go back to online schooling, which is kind of rough for both parents working full-time. You can't always keep an eye on your kids and make sure they do their schoolwork," Edward Laney said.
All afterschool activities, including sports, have been canceled, which affects more than just Tunkhannock Area students.
"With one closing of a district, it affects the scheduling for everyone else, and unfortunately, it trickles down to everybody else, and everybody pays for it," Rosario added.
When the school reopens, all students and staff will be expected to wear a mask.
"Follow the rules. A lot of people don't like rules, but the CDC knows better than anybody else," Laney said.
In-person classes are set to resume Wednesday, September 8.