Washington school district halts program requiring athletes wear COVID tracking monitors

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Ankle monitors for students to track coronavirus? Parents outraged

Washington state dad Jason Ostendorf with reaction to school district action

A public school district in Washington state is pausing a program that required some student-athletes and coaches to wear tracking devices on their wrists to trace COVID-19 during practices. 

"These have been shelved. We will not put them back into place at all. What we're going to do is allow the coaches and the parents to make the decision," Eatonville School Board director Matt Marshall said Wednesday night during a school meeting.

"The proximity monitors have been temporarily shelved pursuant to further parent input," the school district told Fox News. 

WASHINGTON PUBLIC SCHOOL REQUIRES STUDENT ATHLETES TO WEAR TRACKING MONITORS TO TRACE COVID

The development comes after some parents voiced outrage over the program, and some attendees of the Wednesday meeting were spotted wearing t-shirts saying, "UNMASK OUR CHILDREN."  

"It’s just one more thing they’re doing to the kids through this whole covid thing," father of Eatonville High School students, Jason Ostendorf, told The News Tribune this week. "The vaccine, now be tracked when you’re at practice. Where does this end? I feel like this is an experiment on our kids to see how much we can put them through before they start breaking."

"I have an issue with a device being put on my child, who's done nothing wrong, to monitor their movement," Ostendorf added in additional comments to KING 5. "I actually appreciate what the school here tried to do, to allow our kids the ability to play here. I just think the method was all wrong."

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The district had said earlier this week that both vaccinated and unvaccinated athletes who play on teams with high contact and moderate indoor contact, such as volleyball, basketball and wrestling, were required to wear the devices. 

The tracking devices, which were paid for by federal funds, were worn during practice to trace the proximity of one player to others in the event of a positive coronavirus case. 

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"We received grant funding (known as ESSER III) that specifically included provisions to support higher-risk athletic programs, and we used some of those funds to pay for athletic proximity monitors," a statement from the district on Tuesday read. "We are using these monitors for high contact and moderate indoor contact sports. The monitors are for both staff (coaches) and students on the field, regardless if they are vaccinated or unvaccinated. If a student or coach tests positive, we will have immediate information regarding athletes’ and coaches’ contacts, so we can more tightly determine who might need to quarantine."