The devastated parents of a 10-year-old girl who died of Covid after being designated class nurse hit out at after an investigation claimed she didn't come into contact with anyone who had the virus.
Teresa Sperry, 10, from Virginia in the US, was the designated class nurse at school on September 21 but she died six days later.
An internal investigation at Hillpoint Elementary School found Teresa didn't come into contact with anyone “may have had the virus”, reports the Daily Star.
But her parents Nicole and Jeff Sperry have slammed the report expressing their doubts about it.
According to the devastated pair, the investigation was “incomplete”.
They also say they were not told in advance about their daughter's new role, which was to take anyone feeling unwell down to see the official school nurse.
Mr Sperry said: “'Having a child walk students to the nurse during the pandemic?
“It is nonsense, it is insane. Had anybody asked me or informed me, I would have said no.
“I feel that the investigation report is incredibly incomplete.
“How do they know who she was around while she sat outside the nurse's clinic? They did not look at the cameras.
“There is nothing in it about interviewing the security guard, who would have seen my daughter going to the clinic.
“They did not interview anyone else that would have seen her.”
The tragic schoolgirl died days after becoming ill in her fifth-grade class.
At the time of the death, her mum wrote on Facebook that her daughter was “perfectly healthy” prior to the illness.
She alleged that members of school staff had asked her to take other sick children to the office of the school nurse.
Nicole added that her daughter would have “continued to be here if people would have stopped sending their sick kids to school”.
She also claimed that the school had not called her to offer condolences following her death in hospital.
The school district maintains that Teresa did not come into contact with anyone who had Covid at the school before she died.
A statement from the school district said: “Students who attend Hillpoint Elementary School who are suspected of having Covid symptoms are reported to the nurse or office with a phone call to indicate a suspected Code C."
Nicole and Jeff Sperry said their daughter started feeling unwell on September 22 and had to be taken to the hospital after suffering from a severe cough.
Teresa was tested for Covid before being returning home, but her condition worsened and she was transferred to Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters in Virginia, where she sadly died.
Nicole and Jeff were vaccinated and were planning to get Teresa and her nine-year-old brother jabbed when it became available for children under 12.
The grieving parents hope their situation will urge people to take the pandemic more seriously.
Nicole told NBC affiliate WAVY : "While I was sitting next to my dead daughter, there was a Chesapeake School Board meeting and people were saying, 'This does not affect healthy people.
"'This does not kill healthy people. It is not going to take out children. It’s over.'
"Well, I am here to tell you it is not over.
“If it was over, my daughter would still be here, we wouldn’t be doing these interviews, we wouldn’t be preparing for her funeral.
"It upsets me so much that people are so nonchalant about it, while my only girl is gone."
