A Hennessey mom said her high school son tested positive last month for COVID-19, but the Kingfisher County Health Department never contacted her or her son’s girlfriend who lives in Kingfisher.

Misty Copeland said during a phone interview last week with the Times & Free Press that she reported all of her son’s contacts to his football coach.

“He (coach) asked several questions and I told him where he’d been all weekend. I gave him all the names, including the friend and two girls from Kingfisher they were with on that Sunday (Sept. 20), and I heard there were other players there from Kingfisher.”

The Eagles canceled Sept. 25 and Oct. 2 games due to COVID-19.

“I called the girlfriend’s mother to tell her (about son’s test),” Copeland said, “but the mother already knew from her daughter because my son told her.

“Those two little girls never got quarantined,” said Copeland. “They went to school and Kingfisher had their homecoming that weekend.”

Kingfisher played at Bridge Creek on Sept. 25 and didn’t have a game the week before. It hosted Clinton for homecoming Oct. 2 and traveled to McLoud on Oct. 9.

Copeland told school board members during their Monday, Oct. 12, meeting that the county health department failed to notify her, and some of her son’s contacts.

“I gave them all of the names,” she said.

“Because of HIPPA restrictions I cannot comment on anything that would identify a positive case or someone who is supposed to quarantine,” wrote Maggie Jackson in an email to the KT&FP. She is the community engagement director for Kingfisher, Canadian, Blaine, Garfield, Grant, Logan and Major counties.

“I can let you know in general our staff are doing everything they can to notify contacts to positive cases,” Jackson said, “and we have a high volume of cases right now. We also partner with our schools to determine who might be a close contact.”

Identifying contacts and getting contact information depends on what information health departments receive, said Jackson.

The school “absolutely” contacted the Kingfisher County Health Department said HPS Superintendent Dr. Mike Woods in a phone interview on Oct. 14.

Woods said the health department is required to check out all contacts. If they call and ask you if you were in contact with someone with COVID-19, and you say “no,” then there is nothing they can do, he said.

“Some people feel we’re following stricter standards than others are,” the Hennessey superintendent said. “I know one of the young men did get contacted.”

Four students and two staffers tested positive for COVID the week of Sept. 21-25, the superintendent reported on the school’s web site. He reported at the board’s Sept. 14 meeting they’d had one staff and seven students (four elementary and one each in pre-K, middle and high schools) tested positive since the start of school Aug. 6.

At the board meeting, Woods said they’d had no COVID cases the week before, and they’d “loosen up” at football games, and allow parents on the field after the team’s after game huddle.

“What about the deal with Kingfisher?” Copeland asked after Woods’ comment. There were no audible replies.

Woods said during the phone interview that he’d “visited” with Kingfisher Superintendent Jason Sternberger, but didn’t go into details.

Sternberger told the KT&FP that his district remains in regular and frequent communication with the health department and follows its guidelines.

“They’ve been tremendous in working with us,” Sternberger said.

He said other than having to quarantine an entire grade at Heritage Elementary shortly after beginning school, the district’s absences have seen little fluctuation.

“We’ve been running about 5 to 7 percent with our absences since the first of September,” he said. “It’s been very steady each week.”

Copeland told KT&FP that her son came home at lunchtime with symptoms at noon on Monday, Sept. 21.

“He said he had a 99.9 temperature, his throat was a little itchy and he felt like he’d been hit by a bus.”

That afternoon she called Athletic Director Paul Hix, who also is the head football coach, and Hix said to have her son tested. They did the next day at an Enid drive-thru after it was not available locally.

They got the positive results on Wednesday and she called Hix, Copeland said.

[Ed. note: Managing Editor Michael Swisher contributed to this story.]