Teresa Sperry was a fifth-grader at Hillpoint Elementary School in Virginia. At just 10-years-old, she died of COVID-19 complications and her family is now blaming the school.
Her father Jeffrey claims her teacher appointed her as school nurse and she was tasked with escorting other sick students to the nurse’s office.
“One of the things she told us before she got sick, was that her job was to be the ‘class nurse’ to take the sick kids from the class to the nurse’s office,” he told CNN. “And you have to understand my daughter, this is who she is, helping people is my daughter, it’s not something that she wouldn’t have wanted to do.”
Teresa began to notice COVID-19 symptoms on September 22nd and was taken to the hospital when things got worse on the 26th. A day later, she stopped breathing and died.
The school district said appointing a student nurse is not the district’s policy, but they will investigate the claim.
“The protocol at Hillpoint Elementary School is for the classroom teacher or any adult to contact the main office with a Code ‘C.’ When this occurs, one of the administrators or school nurse will come to the classroom to pick up the student,” District Spokeswoman Athonette Ward said. “We are still investigating to ensure that this process was followed with fidelity.”