Gov. Baker Blames Swampscott School Party For Coronavirus Cluster

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — Gov. Charlie Baker is blaming a "big, giant high school party" in his hometown of Swampscott for one of the state's two biggest coronavirus clusters over the past week.

Testifying remotely in front of the state Joint Committee on COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness and Management on Tuesday, Baker said a church gathering on Cape Cod and the Swampscott teen party were the two biggest culprits in the recent uptick in coronavirus numbers statewide.

Baker confirmed the nature of what had been termed an "out-of-school gathering" that caused the town's numbers to spike last week and caused school and health officials to send Swampscott High into remote learning until at least April 5.

High school students were to return to full, in-classroom learning on Monday under the School Committee-approved plan earlier this month.

High school athletics in the "Fall 2" season of football, girls volleyball, competitive cheer and indoor track were also temporarily suspended.

The school's coronavirus dashboard showed a spike of 22 confirmed cases of coronavirus on March 17 out of 30 cases across the entire district since March 1. The numbers have fallen in recent days with four more confirmed cases on Friday and three on Monday.

There had been only one other case confirmed in the school this month on March 1.

Of the 29 cases confirmed in the past week, 26 of them were high school students or staff.

Students in grades kindergarten through fourth grade are still expected back full-time as of April 5 — meeting the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's directive — with the "plan" to bring back middle school students as of April 12.

High school students, athletes and staff were asked to be tested for coronavirus this week with a site set up at the high school on Monday.

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)

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