Positive COVID-19 tests reported on Menifee HS campuses

By Doug Spoon, Editor

After one student at each high school in Menifee tested positive for COVID-19 in the first two days of school, Perris Union High School district officials are urging any student with COVID-19 symptoms to stay home.

PUHSD deputy superintendent Candace Reines said that none of the three students knowingly came to school with a positive test result. They were either notified of a test result during the school day and were sent home or felt ill, left school and tested positive later in the day.

An email was sent to Paloma Valley High parents after a student left school on Wednesday following a positive test result. One student each at Heritage and Liberty high schools left campus today. In addition, one staff member at Heritage and one staff member at Liberty have also tested positive. Emails are being sent to parents at those schools today.

These cases are in addition to a small number of students who were sent home from summer activities in recent weeks because of positive tests, Reines said.

“If your student is showing any COVID-19 symptoms or has been exposed to someone who has tested positive, please keep them home,” Reines said. “This is critically important with cases on the rise.”

According to today’s COVID-19 update released by Riverside County, 241 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Menifee in the last week. There also have been two additional deaths in Menifee in the last week. There have been 5,869 additional cases reported in Riverside County in the last week.

Students in PUHSD who test positive are sent home to isolate, Reines said. Students who were determined to have been exposed to COVID-positive students by close contact may be sent home to self-quarantine for 10 days. If those students can show proof they were previously vaccinated, they may return to school.

“It is recommended that anyone with COVID-19 symptoms should be tested,” Paloma Valley principal Jennifer Thomasian wrote in the email to parents. “However, many infected people do not develop symptoms, which is why it may be recommended that exposed people be tested whether they have symptoms or not. For information regarding COVID-19 testing visit www.rivcoph.org/coronavirus/testing or call 211.

“Riverside County Department of Public Health is reporting an upward trend in COVID-19 cases and while the COVID-19 vaccine is not a requirement for students to attend school in-person, the district strongly encourages students who are age 12 and older to get vaccinated. Vaccine information can be found here: www.rivcoph.org/COVID-19-Vaccine."

Students and staff at PUHSD schools are required to wear masks at all times while indoors on campus. Staff who are fully vaccinated may remove their masks indoors when students are not present.