Lynden Christian High School reopened its doors to students Thursday Oct. 7, one week earlier than originally intended. The conditions that had been laid out Wednesday Sep. 29, when they closed and moved to remote learning, included a 14 day suspension of in-person activities.
The entire Lynden Christian School system shut their doors last week after 48 students tested positive for COVID-19 with more than an additional 100 students absent with symptoms. The private school district of nearly 1300 students had not been fully online since spring of 2020.
While the younger students of Lynden Christian Schools remain at home, the high school was able to begin this week given that all students and staff had received a negative COVID-19 test within 48 hours before class on Thursday.
A press release from the Whatcom County Health Department voiced support for the decision of Lynden Christian High School to return to in-person learning and extracurricular activities.
“In the past week, the health department has tested hundreds of teachers and students to clear them from quarantine,” said Dr. Amy Harley, co-health officer for Whatcom County.
Thanks to the lower number of cases among the high school students and the schools “renewed commitment” to following prevention and mitigation rules, the health department determined the shorter quarantine was appropriate.
“There are many health benefits to in-person learning, and we appreciate the school’s hard work to ensure the safe return of their high school students,” said Harley.
According to the Washington State Department of Health’s K-12 guidelines, the high school students and staff will need to continue monitoring their symptoms for the remainder of the 14 day window since the school closed.
Lynden Christian’s pre-kindergarten through 8th grade classes will continue to learn online until Wednesday, Oct. 13.
Matt (he/him) added journalism last minute as a punctuation to his time at Western. Majoring in Management Information Systems, he enjoys using spreadsheets and data to understand the story. You can find him behind a camera or microphone at WWU sporting events, the on campus studio or out in the great city of Bellingham.
