OSHA investigating whether Fayette schools protected workers from COVID-19

The Fayette school bus garage where 19 employees tested positive for COVID-19 and one died is under review by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

A report in the OSHA database said an investigation opened April 10 on the Miles Point school bus garage. Marjorie Arnold, Chief of Staff for the Kentucky Labor Cabinet, said Friday that the Kentucky Labor Cabinet, Division of Occupational Safety and Health Compliance, opened an inspection involving Fayette County Schools –- Miles Point Bus Garage, on April 10, after being informed of the death of one of their employees.

“This inspection is on-going and could take up to 6 months to complete,” said Arnold. “The Kentucky Labor Cabinet, including the Division of Occupational Safety and Health Compliance, has taken an active role in working with the Governor’s Office and other state and local enforcement personnel throughout the state to help protect the working men and women of the Commonwealth.”

USA Today reported that nationwide, federal workplace safety inspectors “are conducting nearly 200 coronavirus related investigations to determine whether employers failed to adequately protect their workers,” and that Fayette County Public Schools is one of them.

“While we cannot comment on an open investigation, it is important to note that Fayette County Public Schools initiated the Occupational Safety and Health Administration review by self-reporting the loss of our employee,” district spokeswoman Lisa Deffendall told the Herald-Leader Friday.

USA Today reported that OSHA has jurisdiction over most workplaces in the country and enforces regulations “with inspections, citations and legal actions.”

As of May 8, there were 25 Fayette County residents who had tested positive for COVID-19 and who work as Fayette County Public Schools transportation staff. Nineteen were at the Miles Point bus garage and six were at the Liberty Road school bus garage, according to Kevin Hall, a spokesman for the Lexington Fayette County Health Department.

As of May 8, 38 Fayette County residents tested positive for COVID-19 who were Fayette County staff or students.

Health department officials do not usually notify Fayette Schools about cases involving students, Hall said.

Bus driver Eugenia Higgins Weathers died April 4 after contracting COVID-19 and several other transportation employees who were positive became seriously ill. One of them, Sarah George, who was hospitalized for a month, told the Herald-Leader this week that school district officials “knew something” about multiple transportation workers testing positive “but they didn’t let us know.”

The district announced March 25 it was shutting down its two bus garages after a transportation worker involved in food delivery had tested positive.

Deffendall and the Fayette school board chairwoman have said that the district did all it could to prevent the spread of the virus among its employees even though it publicly disclosed districtwide only four out of 27 total cases before Sunday, April 5.

Weathers’ daughter Shacora Faulkner, also a bus driver, told the Herald-Leader in April she didn’t think that enough precautions were taken with school bus garage employees or that district officials were quick enough to notify other employees of exposure.

“Fayette County did not protect us,” Faulkner said. “They did not inform us. Honestly, I feel like they did not care about us. They waited until after everything had blown up to actually contact employees and tell us to stay . . . on quarantine.”

Fayette Schools Chief Operating Officer Myron Thompson said in April that the district worked with the Lexington-Fayette Health department to identify workers at elevated risk after a positive test, and the district encouraged workers not to congregate in groups.

The Health Department contacted district officials each time a Fayette school employee tested positive for COVID-19, Thompson said. After completing their contact tracing and patient interviews, health officials identified any employee with an elevated risk of exposure.

After learning of an employee’s positive test on Monday, March 23, district officials notified the only other employee identified to have an elevated risk, sent the employee home to self-quarantine, and shared information about the positive test widely with transportation employees and the public, Thompson said.

The bus delivery of meals was halted as soon as the district learned of the second transportation employee’s positive test results, he said.

This story was originally published May 8, 2020 at 8:17 AM.