Boston-area high school switches to online learning after teens attend NYE party

A Boston-area high school announced Tuesday that it will revert to virtual learning, citing a handful of students’ attendance at a New Year’s Eve party.

Officials said the precautions will last through Monday at Groton-Dunstable Regional School District, which had previously used a combination of remote and in-person instruction.

At least one of the pupils who attended the party Thursday has since tested positive for the virus, according to NBC News.

Gilbert said that due to contact tracing, the school has been able to quickly identify any earlier positive tests and prevent the spread. However, Superintendent Laura Chesson wrote in a letter to parents that the exact number of students who attended the party is unknown.

“As a result, in order to ensure that there is not a significant amount of transmission from this event, we have no choice but to move all students at the high school to remote learning until Monday, January 11^th,” she said, according to NBC News.

The school’s athletic activities will also be suspended during the same period.

Massachusetts has a statewide total of 392,658 cases of the virus as of Tuesday and 12,671 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Public health experts have frequently warned that large in-person gatherings, particularly for the new year, are a major hazard for mass transmission of the virus. Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s Palm Beach, Fla., club, hosted a New Year’s Eve party featuring visibly unmasked attendees and no social distancing, prompting state Rep. Omari Hardy (D) to call for the club to be shut down as a public health hazard.