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North Gaston High, Pleasant Ridge Elementary report positive COVID-19 cases

Both schools will remain open after workers conducted deep cleaning of the buildings.

GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — One employee at North Gaston High School and two employees at Pleasant Ridge Elementary School tested positive for COVID-19 this week.

In a message sent to parents, North Gaston principal George Conner said the employee hasn't been in the building since the new school year started Monday, but the school still ordered a deep cleaning as a precaution. 

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Gaston County Schools' spokesman, Todd Hagans, said workers also deep-cleaned Pleasant Ridge Elementary School, and the building will remain open to students.

He said Gaston County's Department of Health and Human Services is handling contact tracing for the cases.

Both join a growing list of schools in the Charlotte area to have at least one new coronavirus case this week. Poplin Elementary School in Union County transitioned to all remote learning after two staff members tested positive this week, and Lake Norman Elementary School also reported one new case. 

Conner told North Gaston students and their families the health department conducted contact tracing for the staff member who tested positive, as well as a deep cleaning of the school. The staff member has not been identified due to privacy concerns. 

"While I know this is concerning, please refrain from sharing information about this situation -- doing so only 'fuels the rumor mill' and creates heightened anxiety for our school family," Conner said.

Some families waiting to pick up their loved ones from school said they aren't concerned about the positive case.

"I feel comfortable because if the mask worked like they say it does, then [my sister] shouldn't get sick, right?" Tyler Swink said.

"My son didn't start school until today so everything was disinfected," Wendy Masters said. "I think everything is going to be okay."

 Michael Kuester, a North Gaston senior who attended classes in-person the first half of the week, said he expected the school would eventually have a positive case.

"Now I'm worried about going back now that I know there's a positive case," Kuester said. "I knew out of all those people going to that school, someone was going to get it."

Gaston County Schools is one of many districts in the Charlotte area that reopened using "Plan B," which is a hybrid of in-person and virtual instruction, this year. Students returned school this week in two groups, with all students learning virtually on Wednesdays.

Gaston County Schools has posted a step-by-step guide for what happens when a student or employee exhibits COVID-19 symptoms while in class.

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