As the school system in Israel slowly re-opens, one school in Kiryat Sefer has already been forced to closed after a special-ed teacher’s assistant was diagnosed with the coronavirus after she had already been in contact with students and other staff.

The special-education schools in Israel were the first to re-open last week due to the difficulties families face with having their special-needs children home all day with no structure.

A woman who works as a teacher’s assistant in fourth grade who felt perfectly fine returned to work but was subsequently tested for the coronavirus when her husband started feeling unwell and he was tested.

The school secretary said: “They measured her temperature when she began, according to the rules, and she didn’t have a temperature. When her husband got tested she also got tested. At the moment we were informed we closed the school.”

An epidemiological investigation that was carried out by the Health Ministry showed that four students were definitely in contact with the teacher in question but due to the fear that there may have been others, the whole school was closed and teachers and many students were forced to enter self-quarantine.

One of the mothers told Kikar H’Shabbos: “Learn from what happened to us. I don’t understand how they’re preparing for all the schools to re-open when it’s liable to end in a tragedy.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)