Year 12 students miss milestones after St Clare's College COVID exposure

On Sunday, students found out there was a year 10 student who had attended school while infectious with COVID-19.

Year 12 student Sophie Chandler, 17, didn't think much of that letter but it all changed on Monday morning when she was told to stay home.

"We just thought it's a year 10 [student], everything's going to be fine. But first thing on Monday morning, my mum actually woke me up at about 7am and she said she'd gotten an email from the school saying that close contact was in my homeroom class," she said.

The pastoral care class is a 12-minute daily class plus one hour lesson on Wednesday with a combination of year 10, 11 and 12 students from the same house group. Everyone in the class with the positive case was deemed a close contact.

About 10 vaccinated year 12 students had to stay home for seven days from the last day of exposure, meaning they missed out on a week of milestones, from muck up day to a graduation breakfast and assembly on Friday.

Classmate Isabella Bencic, 18, said the pandemic had meant many events were cancelled over the past two years but this one hurt the most.

"I think that this week, since there's only 10 of us girls that are missing out it is just so disheartening," she said.

Some of the students in quarantine tried to apply for an exemption from ACT Health to leave quarantine to attend the graduation breakfast and mass on Friday but this was declined.

"I would probably feel better if I was COVID positive because I would be staying at home to protect other people. But I am simply staying at home because they want me to stay at home when I've received a negative COVID test," Miss Bencic said.

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Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said it was a really unfortunate situation but that it was up to ACT Health to grant exemptions on compassionate grounds.

"It's not up to me to be making that decision or a public announcement. I'm not aware of the individual circumstances of these people," Ms Stephen-Smith said.

St Clare's College principal Brad Cooney said the school sought an exemption from ACT Health on behalf of the girls but this was declined.

"We have consulted extensively and found that to change the date [of the breakfast and assembly] would mean considerably more girls would miss out," he said.

"Friday's event is one of a range of celebrations we have planned, including a year 12 formal, graduation mass and awards night. We remain open to expanding on these celebrations to ensure the girls can mark this important milestone with their fellow students."

Miss Chandler said there were lots of tears this week and her mental health had been severely tested.

"It's going to be hard tomorrow for sure watching everyone else celebrate, but it's something I don't want to keep dwelling on," she said.

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