Students In Mendham Back In School After Christie Family Event One Source For COVID Pause

MENDHAM, NJ — Mendham Township middle schoolers were back in school on Monday after several students who had attended the bar mitzvah of the nephew of New Jersey’s former Governor Chris Christie, came down with COVID or had exhibited COVID-like symptoms.

The entire Mendham Township Middle School was virtual this past Friday after the school district learned about the situation among a handful of students, Mendham Township School District Superintendent Dr. Salvatore Constantino said.

In a phone interview with Patch on Monday, Constantino said the district received word late Thursday evening, Sept. 16 of the event; and a decision was made to keep students virtual the next day, as the school district gathered information about which students may have been there.

Constantino said “multiple situations” including the bar mitzvah, contributed to a small group of students either testing positive for COVID or exhibiting symptoms believed to be of the illness.

In both cases, he said those students and their close contacts are currently quarantined, attending classes virtually, the district working with their families.

With the 2021-2022 school year protocols in most schools statewide, Constantino said daily health screenings are now performed by parents rather than school districts, families working with the district on quarantine protocols if they end up notifying the district that their child has COVID-like symptoms or a confirmed COVID-positive test.

According to The New York Post, the bar mitzvah for Christie’s nephew, the son of his brother Mendham resident Todd Christie, took place over the weekend of Sept. 11. The Post learned of the outbreak after acquiring a screenshot of a “friends only” Facebook Post of a family portrait without masks tagged at the Avenue A Club, from Todd Christie’s Facebook Page.

Christie hung up on the publication when The Post attempted to first reach him by on Sept. 17, though his brother Chris Christie consented to speak with them. The former governor, a Mendham resident himself, stated he had no knowledge that COVID cases stemmed from the event and his brother had previously received his full course of COVID-19 vaccinations.

In May, Patch reported on Christie taking aim at Governor Phil Murphy for not allowing fully-vaccinated New Jerseyans to remove masks indoors, contrary to CDC guidelines at the time, calling Murphy’s decision “incomprehensible.”

"Incomprehensible policy decision ignoring the science by the same administration which has made 15 months of decisions that have led NJ to have the most per capita deaths from COVID-19 in the nation," Christie tweeted.

However, in October 2020, Christie - who contracted COVID-19 during the Supreme Court announcement for Amy Coney Barrett and was hospitalized for it - told Patch he advocated for wearing masks publicly, after not having worn them himself at public events, prior to catching the virus.

Read More Here From The New York Post.

Reporting contributed by Russ Crespolini

Questions or comments about this story? Have a news tip? Contact me at:jennifer.miller@patch.com.