Parents Have Questions After Blackhawk School District Basketball Players Forced To Quarantine Due To COVID-19
By: KDKA-TV's Shelley Bortz
BEAVER COUNTY (KDKA) -- Several girls basketball players in the Blackhawk School District are quarantining after a teammate tested positive for COVID-19.
But this isn't sitting well with their parents.
"It's devastating. She's going to miss the first tournament, she's going to miss a week of practices," said a parent who does not want to be identified.
The parent said her daughter was sidelined from the Blackhawk junior varsity girls basketball team on Monday after coming into contact with another player who tested positive for COVID-19.
"They told me it was contact tracing. So they contact traced to my daughter and because she wasn't vaccinated, she got sent home along with the other unvaccinated players," the parent said.
The parent wants to know why the district is only sidelining the unvaccinated players. The team's coach is unvaccinated and is still allowed to coach, the parent said.
"It's all coming back to were you without a mask in this player's presence for longer than 15 minutes?" the parent said.
The incident stems from a scrimmage at Avonworth on Saturday. The parent said the district claims it was on the bus ride home when the players came into close contact with their infected teammate, not at the game itself.
Furthermore, since the coach was not on the bus with the team, the district told parents he does not have to quarantine.
"It doesn't make sense to me because I know they don't have to wear masks during the game and they weren't masking when they were on the bench and to say that he didn't have contact with her for longer than 15 minutes it's out there to think that wasn't close contact," the parent said.
KDKA left several messages for the superintendent and the athletic director but has not heard back.
The district told the parent that it followed state guidelines.