Six students were banned from end-of-year celebrations after they were told by the school to isolate and get tested on Monday, October 18, one day before the last day of school.
The students had attended a home room class, which lasted for about 15 minutes, with a positive case.
Two of those students who spoke to The News said they received negative tests on the Tuesday and, when they hadn’t been contacted by the Department of Health, called to check if they were primary close contacts.
The students said people from the department told them they didn’t have to isolate.
“They said we wouldn’t even be considered casual contacts,” one of them said of the advice they were given.
The six students attended an unofficial end-of-year celebration on Tuesday, October 19 with dozens of other Shepparton school students.
The venue the celebrations were held at was subsequently labelled a Tier 1 exposure site and the two students, who didn’t wish to be named, said they then entered isolation and followed procedures to complete exams as primary close contacts.
The students were banned from in-person graduation celebrations because they attended the event while the school said they should be isolating.
However, the students said some of their cohort who were at the exposure site allegedly didn’t follow directions to isolate from the Department of Health, and they were “upset” by the prospect that those students they alleged breached isolation orders after the unofficial celebrations were not being treated the same by the school.
Notre Dame College principal John Cortese said the six students who were subsequently banned from attending end-of-year celebrations were given clear instructions from the school.
He said the school had been given authority by the Department of Health to tell students to isolate when they were identified as close contacts of positive cases who were on school premises.
Deputy principal Jen Frisardi said rules around isolation were changing at the time of the incident, which complicated matters, and none of the students contacted the school for more information — instead going to the Department of Health.
Mr Cortese said none of the students who were suspended could tell him who at the department they had spoken to.
“We were delegated that responsibility from the Department of Health,” he said.
Mr Cortese said the health department never told the school the six students’ status as primary close contacts needed to be downgraded, and when students called the department whoever they spoke to may not have had all information in front of them because of a backlog of cases in the system.
“A few months ago we had a meeting with Year 12s and spoke about the rules being followed and the consequences if they weren’t, and that included COVID-19 restrictions and rules,” Mr Cortese said.
The school was not able to confirm which students were and weren’t primary close contacts from the October 19 celebrations because staff weren’t privy to that data from the Department of Health, and Ms Frisardi said she was not going to act on rumours about who was and wasn’t a close contact.
Mr Cortese said the students would still graduate even though they would miss the events in person.
