ROBINSON — Montour School District had to go into COVID-19 crisis mode when almost the entire cheerleading squad at the high school tested positive.

“It was the 2nd week of cheer camp, and we got the call that one of our team members had COVID-19,” said Maddy Mascellino, co-captain on the Montour High School Cheer Squad.

Co-captain Giovanna Niccolai said no one was experiencing any symptoms, so it came as a complete shock.

“We all had to get tested and it was like a domino effect. Positive. Positive. Positive.” Niccolai said.

Thirteen out of sixteen girls on the squad and one coach all tested positive - just two weeks before school started.

“I would be lying if I said we weren’t nervous or scared, what the outcome of all of it would be,” said Natalia Rippole, the coach who tested positive.

Tense Days

It was just two weeks before school was to start on September 1 and those first few days were tense.

“I’m a diabetic,” said Sarah Trosky, also a co-captain on the squad. “In the beginning, I was scared of how it would affect me, my family, and my personal health.”

They all went into immediate quarantine, but luckily either had no symptoms or just mild ones.

“It didn’t affect me bad,” Trosky said. “I just lost taste and smell.”

Her coach also had that same strange symptom that’s come to signify COVID-19.

“It was really weird,” Rippole said. “You’d put things in your mouth to taste it, but it was almost like your brain was recognizing just the texture. Again, it was a really weird feeling.”

The two other co-captains, Mascellino and Niccolai said their only symptom was a headache.

“I would have to say my worst symptom was maybe a headache, but it lasted no more than two days,” Niccolai said.

Crisis Mode

As the girls secluded in their bedrooms for two weeks in isolation, the district’s administration went into crisis mode.

Montour is one of only a handful of districts in Western Pennsylvania that had planned to return to all in-person classes, five days a week, on the first day of school.

The outbreak upended the plan, at least at the high school. The district had to pivot quickly.  In consultation with the Allegheny County Health Department, the high school decided to shift from a plan to have the majority of students attend five-day-a-week in person classes to a hybrid model-- where only 50-percent of students were allowed on campus at any one time.

District Superintendent Dr. Chris Stone said they decided not to go all-remote learning, as many other districts have, because their community felt strongly that it was important to get kids back into the classroom. While the high school started the year with the A/B schedule, both the elementary and junior high continued with the plan for all in-person instruction.

“Face to face human contact is so, so critical in educating children,” Stone said. “We do understand there is a risk, but we put every safety protocol and precaution in place to help mitigate the risk.”

Those precautions include mandatory masks, desks spaced at least three feet apart, hand-sanitizing dispensers around the school, and even electromagnetic sanitizers.

Dealing with COVID-19 Stigma

Despite the cheerleaders' COVID-19 outbreak just two weeks earlier, high school students were back in class on the first day of school on the A/B schedule—including the cheerleaders. Half the students were in class for two days, while a camera allowed the other half to remote-in to the classroom from home. The groups alternated every two days.

Returning to class after COVID-19 did present another challenge for the cheerleaders – facing a stigma some direct at those who’ve had COVID-19.

“One of the hardest parts was worrying if people were going to think of you differently. Are people scared to talk to you? Is she infected? Could she infect me?” Niccolai remembered asking herself.

Her coach agreed that there was concern that people would judge them.

“I feel like people’s first reaction to the word is a negative one,” Rippole said. “Like, ‘Oh, did you spread it? Were you really doing what you were supposed to be doing?’”

The team said they did follow precautions, like masks and temperature checks, but with close contact a necessary part of stunts, they still got it.

“It’s so easy to get and easy to spread so fast,” Mascellino said.

Even though there was some gossip about 'the cheerleaders getting COVID-19-- they say, overwhelmingly, people were supportive.

“It has been a little bit of a roller coaster, but we all stuck together,” said Cheer Coach Kristie Hayes, who was one of the few who did not test positive. “We made it through. So, this is great we’ve come this far.”

Managing the Risk

When it comes to COVID-19, Montour has taken the approach of not ‘if’, but ‘when’ they would have cases.

“Operating a school district with 3000 kids, 500 employees, social settings, all that—we understand the kids and adults were probably going to catch COVID and we were going to have cases,” Stone said.

The district made the decision based on family surveys to commit to five-day-a-week in person instruction. The superintendent said 85% of those who filled out the questionnaires wanted kids back in the classroom.

He said the district feels strongly that is what’s best for students.

He cites the American Academy of Pediatrics, which advocates for in-person instruction, unless the virus is widespread. “Families rely on schools to provide child care; a safe, stimulating space for children to learn; opportunities for socialization; and access to school-based mental, physical, and nutritional health services,” the AAP COVID-19 Guidance states.

The Centers for Disease Control issues this guidance on the pros and cons of children returning to school in-person.

Not “if” but “when”

After six weeks on the A/B hybrid schedule, the high school finally returned to all in-person instruction last week.

In a turn of fate, two more kids at the high school ended up testing positive over this past weekend. The district quickly went into crisis mode again and completed contact tracing. A total of 58 kids are now in quarantine, as a precaution, as a result of close contact with the two students who tested positive. All are able to continue attending classes remotely.

“We anticipated there were going to be additional cases,” Stone said. “This is operating a school during a pandemic.”

The district has a COVID Tracker on its website to be transparent about how many cases they have. As of Tuesday, it shows a total of four staff and four students confirmed positive in all schools, since the start of the school year. (The cheerleaders are not included in the total, since they contracted it before September 1st and were negative by the time school started.)

The superintendent said all the cases, so far, have been asymptomatic or mild.

“We’ve been very fortunate. We’re blessed,” he said.

Meanwhile, the cheer squad said living through this crisis has brought them closer together as a team and made them stronger as individuals.

“This whole COVID thing is about adapting and adjusting to a new environment—which, I feel, is going to help me down the road, for sure,” Niccolai said.

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