TWINSBURG, Ohio — He takes all his classes from home.
"I feel like I’m still missing out on some social interactions and stuff but I do feel safe so that’s the most important part really,” said Twinsburg High School senior Josh Aponte. He hasn’t had any COVID scares, but it’s still affecting him.
"It's kind of is a little scary when you find out one of your friends might have it,” said Josh.
Josh’s mom, Pam Aponte, keeps him home because he has asthma.
"The schooling is important, but their life is important too,” said Pam.
Although Josh isn’t in the building right now, he and his mom are both in favor the Twinsburg school district's policy.
If a student has any one of the COVID symptoms like fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose or several others, they will either need to produce a negative COVID test or stay home for 10 days.
The same quarantine rules apply if they’re exposed to COVID or test positive for COVID.
The issue parents are having is getting a test. If you don’t have any symptoms, or just a single symptom, doctors really shouldn’t test, according to Donna Skoda, the health commissioner with Summit County Public Health.
"I think for parents, the difficulty comes in when your children are asymptomatic and they seem fine and they really don’t look sick, or act sick, but the problem is 40% of all COVID cases are asymptomatic,” said Skoda. "And that’s why it becomes very difficult for us to say, 'Oh yeah, go back to school.'”
Summit County Public Health is offering some solutions.
"We at the health department test everything for the schools, we have testing set up so the school can refer folks to us, but we typically would like you to go through your primary care provider first,” said Skoda.
Aponte is hoping folks will follow the rules so her son might be able to go back to school and enjoy his last year.
"This year, my son's lost everything,” said Pam.
