#First known case of student COVID-19 in NYC public school revealed

A teenager at a Brooklyn school tested positive for Covid last week after attending in-person classes, exposed staffers told The Post.

It’s the first known case of an NYC public school coping with an infected student who went to classes in the building.

The teen attended P373K, the Brooklyn Transition Center in Bedford-Stuyvesant, a school for students with autism and developmental disabilities.

Staffers did not find out about the student’s positive test result until two days later.

The DOE has listed at least 189 schools where members of the school community have tested positive, but not reported whether any were students.

Two Staten Island students were reported to have had Covid, but were not inside their school buildings, according to silive.com.

Teacher Madelyne Todd , one of six staffers at P373K now quarantined because they came into close contact with the infected student, cited several problems with how it was handled.

“Nobody knew what to do,” Todd told The Post.

“I could see the terror in their eyes,” the teacher said of school administrators. “They were on the phone with the district, trying figure out the protocol.”

The infected student attended two days of classes, on Sept. 22 and Sept. 25, the week that programs for 3-K, Pre-K and District 75 students with disabilities opened. Last week, elementary, middle and high schools opened.

Last week the student failed to log onto remote classes. When teacher Quinn Zannoni called the teen’s parents on Thursday, Oct. 1, to ask why, they said their child  felt ill and had tested positive for Covid on Sept. 29, two days before, but they didn’t find out until Sept. 30.

Zannoni said he immediately notified his supervisors. They called the parents, who had to walk to a clinic to get the lab report. That took nearly three hours, he said.

Later that day,  school and health officials in the DOE’s new Covid “Situation Room” notified six adults — including Zannoni, Todd, paraprofessionals and a service provider — to quarantine until Oct. 9 — 14 days after the student was last in class.

Todd, who shares a classroom with Zannoni,  believes the school did not adequately notify the parents. It sent students home with a letter in their backpacks about a “potential case” of Covid, even though it was already confirmed. Some students were absent.

About 8 pm. staff received an email that the case was confirmed.

Todd  asked supervisors whether other students in the same classroom should be quarantined. The answer was no.

“The Situation Room has not identified your students as close contacts,”  Todd was told in an email.

Still, Todd phoned parents to tell them about the quarantines.  “My families didn’t know. That was very concerning to me.”

Todd got a negative test result on Saturday but still has to quarantine. Zannoni is awaiting a test result.

In late August, 100 staffers at P373K, which has three sites, sent a letter to DOE officials and city and state elected officials outlining major concerns about the DOE’s school reopening plan.

Among them, the letter said, “Many of our students cannot wear face masks due to medical conditions or their disabilities.” Also, students with disabilities “may have an exceptionally difficult time” staying six feet apart.

“This will put all of the students and staff working within that room at increased risk of airborne or droplet transmission,” the letter said.

“There have been students who rip their masks off. They’re unable to wear them,” Zannoni said.

Staffers also remain worried about the school’s ventilation. The city’s inspection report did not note seven rooms without windows that open, Zannoni said. As the chapter leader, his request for an independent ventilation expert to inspect the building was denied, he added.