‘Upsetting’: SC mom says health officials ignored child’s negative COVID-19 test

TEGA CAY, S.C. — Eight-year-old Colton Justice celebrated his birthday Tuesday, but not in the way he hoped to.

Colton is learning from home instead of being with friends in school.

He and his two brothers were sent home from Tega Cay Elementary School after he tested positive for COVID-19 a week ago.

His mother, Scarlet Justice, told Channel 9 that’s only part of the story, and she’s furious with state health officials in South Carolina.

“It’s unnecessary drama. Today’s my son’s birthday and we should be celebrating,” she said.

They went to a drive-thru COVID-19 testing site on Nov. 3, because an older son had been coughing.

They were tested, and the results were negative for everyone except Colton. She got the results Friday, immediately pulled Colton out of Tega Cay Elementary and got him re-tested that same day.

The entire family quarantined at home all weekend while awaiting results of the second test.

“They came in Monday morning at 6:15 and showed negative, so I sent him to school,” Justice said.

A few hours went by and the mother got a call from the school. They were notified about her son’s positive test from the week before and assumed she’d knowingly sent a child to school who was positive with COVID-19.

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But she had a more recent negative test in hand. Justice didn’t send Colton back to school until she received the negative test result.

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Justice said the Department of Health and Environmental Control told her Colton’s first test, which was positive, was likely a false positive. He had no symptoms and no one else in the family had tested positive.

The agency told Justice they would not contact his school until they had the results of the second test. However, the school was contacted anyway.

That led to contact tracing, other parents being notified and there was a higher level of concern for other families.

Justice said that should never have happened.

“Their choosing to only use the positive, so they can count that as their numbers was upsetting,” she said.

DHEC responded to questions from Channel 9 in an email saying, “We won’t be able to comment on an individual case due to privacy restrictions.”

It went onto say, “Sometimes schools are notified of cases in students and faculty before DHEC is, which is why we work so closely with the school districts to maintain that two-way information stream.”

As of late Tuesday, DHEC had not explained why the agency reported the earlier positive test to the school and not the more recent negative test.

Justice wants the agency to contact the school and allow her sons to go back to class. As of now, they are all quarantined until after Thanksgiving even though none of them are positive for COVID-19.

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