Young Schoolchildren In Quarantine: One East Haven Family's Story

EAST HAVEN, CT —Lifelong East Haven resident Heather Lester, 39, is the mother of four, and grandmother of one, soon to be two, grandchildren. Her 23-year-old daughter Aaliyah is pregnant. And it’s a high-risk pregnancy with complications, so Heather is the one who takes Aaliyah to the doctor and her other appointments. Heather also cares for her 3-year-old son Giovanni and her 5-year-old son Xavier. Her 14-year-old Samuel is a teen and largely self-sufficient, but needs her care and support, too.

The pandemic has been hard for the family, not unlike most families, but Heather “does what I have to do every day.”

A couple of weeks ago, she was told by Tuttle School officials that Xavier was a close contact of someone who tested positive for COVID-19 at the school. Xavier was sent home and into quarantine with his family.

It’s a small house, Heather said, with just one bathroom. While he was in home quarantine, Heather made sure to keep a close watch and, keep other family members, including her uncle and mother both of whom are high-risk for the disease, safe. She kept Xavier largely isolated, as much as she could, to keep everyone safe. Just in case.

It hasn't been easy, but she’s managed.

Thankfully, he never developed any coronavirus symptoms and went back to school last week.

Then Monday morning after getting both her boys off to school, while doing her weekly grocery shopping, Heather received a call from Overbrook Learning Center where little Giovanni attends. His class was being sent home, Room 11, after another 3-year-old tested positive for COVID-19. It was the very first student case of the virus in the school, the only school in the district to have avoided that since schools reopened in September.

“Marissa called and said there was an exposure in the classroom and that everybody needed to go home,” she said.

She's referring to Marissa Mollica-Velazquez, the program manager for the Family Resource Center and preschool.

In the store, Heather quickly added more groceries to her cart knowing she’d need to do it now as they’d all be in quarantine again. She quickly paid and dashed to Overbrook to get her son. By then she’d gotten an email with instructions and locations for no-appointment COVID-19 testing and went straight to a site in New Haven where she and Giovanni were tested. She’ll get the results in the next day or two.

Next, she pulled her son Xavier from Tuttle School.

“I had to. We’d have to quarantine all at the same time,” she said, "And I’ll be sleeping on the couch for the next 14 days."

Heather did not blame the staff at Overbrook, in fact, she praised Velazquez.

“I couldn't give you a complaint even if I wanted to," Heather said. "Marissa is great, and they have all done a good job.”

But she does not have the same praise for the school district as a whole in its handling of coronavirus.

“I don't have all the answers, but the way they have handled it overall, not good,” she said. “I assumed there would be cases popping up here or there, but when I'm getting emails with schools with multiple classes quarantined it doesn't make me feel good. I just don’t feel they have the kids’ best interests at heart. I know the mayor can’t override the board of education but for them to close the Town Hall for three or four cases and schools with dozens and dozens of cases and it’s safe? I don't know. I would ask the health department that question: why close the town hall for a couple of cases but not the schools where there’s so many. Explain that to me.”

She had some ideas on what schools should be doing.

“I think the first thing we should do would be to close the school for a few days to do some really deep cleaning. Or do what a lot of the other districts are doing - close schools now until after the first of the year and see where we are. After Thanksgiving and then Christmas the cases are going to go way up. I guess I just want them to do the right thing. For my family. For all families in East Haven.”