AURORA, Colo. — Students on the Eaglecrest High School wrestling team have been quarantined for weeks following a COVID-19 outbreak and one student says it's taking its toll on him and violating his rights.
"It's been pretty hard," said Gabe Rangel, who is a freshman. "I feel like, really lonely and sad because all I get to do is sit in my room or sit in the house and just do nothing."
Most of the wrestling team got infected. The Tri-County Health Department sent a letter to Cherry Creek Schools calling it "an extraordinarily high COVID-19 attack rate" forcing the 60-member team to quarantine.
But, Gabe Rangel's mother, Rebecca Rangel said enough is enough.
"Gabe is three weeks after his exposure and he's still under quarantine," Rebecca Rangel said. "He's healthy. He's never had any symptoms. He's still not allowed back in school."
Tri-County Health (which oversees Adams, Arapahoe, and Douglas Counties) said he cannot come back to campus until he shows a negative COVID-19 test or undergoes an extended quarantine of 10 more days.
"It's ridiculous," Gabe Rangel said. "It shouldn't be a requirement to come back."
Rebecca Rangel said being quarantined for three weeks without symptoms is long enough to show he does not have COVID-19, according to guidelines from the CDC which recommends 14 days if there are no symptoms. She said requiring a negative COVID-19 test is too much.
"I think it's against their civil rights," Rebecca Rangel said. "They do have to take steps to be safe, but they're not following those steps. Those steps would be a 14-day quarantine, not a 24-day quarantine and not mandating tests."
Dr. Bernadette Albanese is an epidemiologist with Tri-County Health. She said these measures are necessary.
"Without a test, we would never be able to know that someone who feels perfectly fine is infected with COVID-19, it's as simple as that," Albanese said.
Albanese said 69% of the Eaglecrest Wrestling team is infected with COVID-19, which is why she wants to see negative tests after a 14-day quarantine.
"If we don't have that data at 14 days and in fact, one or more of the individuals in quarantine actually got infected and never had symptoms and felt great are gonna go right back into the school setting and right back into the wrestling team and we start the cycle over again," Albanese said.
She said the 10-day extended quarantine offers a cushion that makes it safe for someone with no symptoms to come back to school.
"It's not following any of the CDC guidelines or processes," Rebecca Rangel said. "I feel like they're kind of making up their own guidelines."
Gabe Rangel said he just wants to get out of the house.
"I wish I was still in school," he said. "I wish I could actually be in school so my grades wouldn't suffer as they are."
The Cherry Creek School District issued the following statement:
"We are committed to protecting the health and safety of students and staff, and we follow all local and state guidelines regarding quarantine and return-to-school decisions. In the case of the Eaglecrest wrestling team, we followed the quarantine rules provided by the Tri-County Health Department for COVID-19 outbreaks.
As the letter states, students who were required to quarantine related to this outbreak were informed they could return to school after 14 days with a negative COVID-19 test. Per the letter, if a student refuses testing, that student must isolate for an additional 10 days in order to limit the introduction of possible asymptomatic cases to the school."
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: COVID-19 Coronavirus