Virginia girl, 10, dead from COVID after being named ‘class nurse’
A 10-year-old girl in Virginia died from COVID-19 complications after she was tasked with accompanying sick classmates to the nurse’s office, her parents said.
One week before her death, Teresa Sperry told her mom and dad that her fifth-grade teacher at Hillpoint Elementary School in Suffolk gave her the “nurse” job of walking sick kids to the actual nurse’s office, according to a Facebook post from her mother, Nicole Sperry.
“I want to explain by complications that her heart just gave up. Our daughter was perfectly healthy,” Nicole Sperry wrote. “And would have continued to be here if people would have stopped sending their sick kids to school.”
Teresa first showed COVID symptoms Sept. 22, and her parents took her to a local hospital, CNN reported. She died Sept. 27. A positive test confirming the diagnosis came back after her death.
Suffolk Public Schools, which includes Hillpoint Elementary, is investigating Nicole’s account that her daughter was “class nurse,” according to the Virginian-Pilot. The district’s policy is for adults, not children, to accompany sick kids to the nurse’s office.
Exactly how Teresa was exposed to the virus remains unclear. Virginia’s health department is attempting to conduct contact tracing.
After Teresa’s death, her father, Jeff, tested positive despite being vaccinated.
“Want to know what you can do to honor my lovely girl?” Nicole Sperry wrote on Facebook. “Wear a damn mask! Get vaccinated! Social distance! And most importantly stop complaining and keep your sick kids at home. Because in the end you will still get to hug yours.”