Washington School Locks Children With Cold Symptoms In Small Hallway Unsupervised

VALLEY, WA – A Washington mom is speaking out against treatment her son and several other students received when they displayed symptoms of a cold on November 5.

The school, Valley K-8, called Lexie Walsh to let her know that her six-year-old son, Gabriel, had a stuffy nose and, due to recent COVID-19 exposures in the building, would need to be picked up and remain out of the school for 10 days.

When Lexie arrived, she said, she didn’t see Gabriel outside the office, which is where she would normally find him to pick him up for illness. “I asked the principal Becky Parrill where he was…After a few minutes, they told me he was in the gym. I went into the gym, he was not there.”

Lexie’s younger son noticed that Gabriel was sitting in what she described as a “gymnasium closet.” The space does not hold any storage, but appears to be a small hallway of sorts off the back end of the gymnasium. She could see Gabriel and several other children through a tall but slim window in the door to the gym.

Lexie tried to open the door for Gabriel to come out, but it was locked.

The door to get back into the gym was locked and could not be opened from the inside or the outside, and she had to go locate the gym teacher to unlock it so her son could exit the closet.

The door to the outside of the school leading to the main road, however, appeared to be unlocked.

Lexie said that there were no chairs in the small space, so Gabriel was leaning against a wall. There were six children locked in the small space with no adult supervision. There was no food, poor ventilation (as evident by the sweat on the children’s foreheads), and the water fountain inside was turned off.

Heartbreakingly, once the door was finally opened, Gabriel asked his mom what he had done wrong and if that’s what jail was like.

“It’s unimaginable the inhumanity these children faced, being held like prisoners,” Lexie said. “I also wonder how long the other children had to sit in that closet. I live close by, some other parents may not. I also have to question what would have happened in an emergency. Fire, evacuation, etc.  No one seemed to be aware our children were in there. If there was a fire, would they have been forgotten with no way to escape?”

The district later said that two children in first and third grade contracted COVID-19, so school policy dictated that they close classrooms and isolate any child displaying symptoms. Gabriel told his teacher he had a stuffy nose, which landed him in the locked and enclosed hallway.

Gabriel had not tested positive for the virus.

Lexie said that when they got home that evening, Gabriel was afraid to go into his room because there is a lock on his door. Still, two weeks later, “Gabriel gets quiet when we pass the school,” Lexie said. She also said he’s been much more clingy since the incident.

Ben Ferney, the Superintendent for Valley School District, released a statement following outrage over the incident. “Through that process of evaluating and isolating symptomatic students,” the statement said, “we found some weaknesses in our supervision plan and the space used to isolate symptomatic students. Our internal review of our process from Friday found that an adult was not present 100% of the time when students were in the isolation area. We have fixed that procedure to ensure that going forward, supervision will be maintained 100% of the time.”

Ferney pointed out that the inner door connecting the closet to the gym has an automatic locking mechanism. “Our procedures going forward,” he said, “will ensure that the inner door remains propped open whenever the space is used for isolating symptomatic students. We apologize that we did not recognize the need for these key elements in our protocols prior to Friday, when we used those protocols for the first time with a high number of potentially symptomatic students at the same time.”

Lexie said she would like to see the staff involved place on immediate leave while an investigation takes place into how these children could have been locked up, left alone, and forgotten like this. She would also like to see the school release policies to make sure this never happens again, and she would like a public apology for all the children affected by the trauma.

“This isn’t about Covid,” Lexie said. “This did happen due to Covid regulations, but that’s not the battle I’m fighting today. This is about the reckless and irresponsible treatment, abuse, really, of my son and several other children by the school, the place we’re supposed to feel safe in sending our kids.”

Lexie has pulled Gabriel from the school and is currently homeschooling for the rest of the year while she figures out what to do. She said that Ferney reached out to her to offer Gabriel a visit with the school counselor, but Lexie opted against it, as he is now “terrified of the school and no longer attends anyway.”

Ferney said the school would be “seeking a third-party review of our actions and protocols.”

Red Voice Media reached out to Principle Parrill to see if there has been any update on an investigation and/or discipline, but we have not received a response at the time of this writing.

Red Voice Media would like to make a point of clarification on why we do not refer to any shot related to COVID-19 as a “vaccine.” According to the CDC, the definition of a vaccine necessitates that said vaccine have a lasting effect of at least one year in preventing the contraction of the virus or disease it’s intended to fight. Because all of the COVID-19 shots thus far available have barely offered six months of protection, and even then not absolute, Red Voice Media has made the decision hereafter to no longer refer to the Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson substances as vaccinations.