Suffolk student who died of COVID-19 did not walk sick classmates to nurse, spokeswoman says

Suffolk — A 10-year-old girl who died of coronavirus complications was not accompanying classmates with COVID-19 symptoms to the nurse before she got sick, a school division representative said.

Suffolk Public Schools officials looked into whether Hillpoint Elementary School fifth-grader Teresa Sperry had been walking with sick students, against the staff’s COVID-19 protocol. The internal investigation occurred after the child’s parents said in interviews and on social media that her teacher picked her for the classroom job a week before she died, an activity they say could have put her at risk.

Anthonette Ward, a public schools spokeswoman, said the nurse recalled one time Teresa walked with a student who had hurt his ankle on the playground, but not for children with cold symptoms, she said.

“Our staff did adhere to the protocol,” Ward said. “If a student is sick, an administrator comes and walks them down. That part was upheld.”

But Teresa’s parents, Jeff and Nicole Sperry, question how thoroughly school officials looked into it. Jeff Sperry said the day his daughter told him about her classroom job, she had mentioned she took two children to the nurse that day — not one.

“Every news story ends with the fact that the superintendent of Suffolk schools says nothing like this happened, which is a roundabout way of saying my daughter was lying,” he said.

Their daughter died at Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters in Norfolk last month. Her symptoms began with a headache but escalated quickly; five days later, she stopped breathing and couldn’t be revived.

Teresa’s case brings into focus the concerns of resuming full-time education amid the worst pandemic in U.S. history. Public health experts advocated for the return to classrooms and assured that in-person learning could happen safely with masking, physical distancing, screening for symptoms and quarantining. They pointed to studies that found schools haven’t been a primary source of spread.

Teresa is one of 10 children under 18 who has died from COVID-19 statewide, according to the Virginia Department of Health. Over 131,000 children have been diagnosed with the disease, and close to 1,000 have been hospitalized with serious illnesses.

Nationwide, children represented about one in four of the weekly reported cases Oct. 8 through Oct. 14, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. That’s consistent with what is happening in Virginia, where juveniles are making up 23% of new cases.

“No kid should ever have to walk anybody to the nurse’s office for any reason during COVID,” Nicole Sperry said. “That’s too much risk of exposure.”

Where Teresa got the virus is still unclear. Citing privacy reasons, Brookie Crawford, a health department spokeswoman, declined to confirm that a contact-tracing investigation had been conducted or if the agency knew where she had been exposed.

Local health departments try to call all people infected with COVID-19 and work with them to identify people at risk of getting sick from them, Crawford said. During the week Teresa was diagnosed, only about 44% of confirmed COVID-19 cases were reached for interviews, according to the health department.

The Sperrys said the health department did not interview them on Teresa or Jeff Sperry’s whereabouts to determine who they could have exposed or where they might have gotten the virus. Jeff, though vaccinated, tested positive for COVID-19 after Teresa became ill. Neither Nicole Sperry nor Teresa’s siblings were infected.

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“We don’t know 100% where she contracted it, but we know the people she was around beforehand,” Nicole Sperry said. “None of them were sick, none of them needed to be quarantined or any of that stuff.”

Teresa’s teacher was a long-term substitute. On Sept. 27 — the day she died — a letter went to parents letting them know a new permanent teacher would be taking over the class, according to the school division. The new teacher began Oct. 4.

Ward said the teacher swap was unrelated to the investigation.

“Bringing the new teacher on board was planned before the tragedy occurred,” she said in an email.

The principal, teachers and Parent Teacher Association members will have a private memorial for staff and students’ families Thursday evening. One of the ways the school is remembering Teresa is with a special mural painted by the art teacher.

“I know that man put his heart into it,” Jeff Sperry said, “and I know he put his heart into my kid.”

Elisha Sauers, 757-839-4754, elisha.sauers@pilotonline.com