Lakewood Soccer Team Quarantined, 2 Classes Remote Amid COVID-19

LAKEWOOD, NJ — The Lakewood boys soccer team is in quarantine and two classes in the district have moved to remote instruction after three people tested positive for the coronavirus, officials said Tuesday.

The Lakewood School District reported in its weekly update that a member of a sports team had tested positive, and 25 students — all team members — are in quarantine as of Monday. The team was identified as the boys soccer team after Point Pleasant Boro announced its varsity squad is in quarantine as a result of the Lakewood positive. The two teams played a game Oct. 14.

In addition to the soccer team, two classes were moved to remote instruction due to staff members who tested positive. One is a special needs preschool class at the Lakewood Early Childhood Center, which moved to remote instruction Friday. The second is a kindergarten class at Piner Elementary School, which was moved to remote instruction Monday.

A second staff member at Piner Elementary School tested positive, but Lakewood school officials said that case was linked to one outside the school.

The quarantines will be in place for 14 days, following guidelines from the Ocean County Health Department and the federal Centers for Disease Control.

Patch has asked whether any students beyond who may have come in contact with the soccer player in classes have been quarantined. That question was not immediately answered.

There have been more than two dozen staff and students who have tested positive for the coronavirus in the Lakewood schools, which opened with fully in-person instruction in September.

The decision to open with fully in-person instruction has been criticized as unsafe by the Lakewood Education Association and led to a heated argument where Michael Inzelbuch, the Lakewood Board of Education attorney, followed Lakewood Education Association president Kimberlee Shaw around as a News 12 New Jersey reporter tried to interview her.

The teachers union expressed concerns about the safety of returning to fully in-person instruction in crowded classrooms, particularly in Lakewood Middle School. The district has since brought in classroom trailers to ease the crowding at the middle school.

Inzelbuch has insisted that fully in-person instruction was critical for the families of the 6,000 students who attend the public schools.

Patch has repeatedly reached out to Inzelbuch and Superintendent Laura Winters in recent weeks but has not received a reply to various inquiries related to COVID-19 or the issues with the teachers union.

With reporting by Tom Davis

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