Exeter High School in New Hampshire, marked their students during prom, if they weren’t fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
According to a statement released by the school, prom was held on June 4 and marking the unvaccinated child’s arm was a means of contact tracing.
“To make it possible to be inclusive and have all seniors participate without requiring masks – knowing it was not possible to have a 100% vaccine rate – we needed to have a contact tracing system in place. All students were notified about this and as they registered, they were asked for vaccination information. Background information on the prom was provided through a dedicated website…,” wrote the school.
Students were apparently separated into groups across three floors of the building and had to raise their arm after ever few songs “to identify” who they were with.
The statement said, “Students who were unable to provide a vaccination card because they did not have or share a card or had not completed the full vaccination process had a number written on their hand. Dancing was divided among three dance floors. During the dancing, after every few songs they were asked to raise their hands to determine who they were around.”
Exeter High Principal, Mike Monahan, wrote a statement in regards to the outrage.
“Our student and parent feedback has been extremely positive regarding the prom experience.
We are aware that some concerns have been expressed that students were singled out or had
their privacy violated. We made every effort possible – while adhering to contact tracing
guidelines – to ensure that this did not happen. We hope the community will understand that
while no model is perfect, this model let the students enjoy a close to normal and highly desired experience to cap off their senior year. That’s the memory we want to leave them with,” he wrote.