Fresno City College closes campus after student is exposed to COVID-19

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- "The fire alarm came on, they started evacuating everyone from the school and they told us to go home."

Fresno City College senior William Garcia is describing the shutdown of his school Monday afternoon.

He was walking to the tutoring center at Fresno City College when he was told he needed to leave immediately.

"Probably like an hour later, they sent out an email," Garcia said.

In that email, students were notified that a possibly infected student and military member traveled to their Veterans Center in need of services.

College president Carole Goldsmith says according to the student, they were exposed to a COVID-19 positive patient outside of the Central Valley sometime last weekend.

The Veteran Center was put on lock-down.

"Public health advised that those individuals who were working in that area to be placed in a self-isolation for 14 days," Dr. Goldsmith said.

To err on the side of caution, Goldsmith says those in the neighboring center who help disabled students were also advised to self-isolate.

In-person classes had already been suspended, but as a precaution, the campus will now be closed for a week.

"We hope we will be able to resume, but there is a great likelihood that we will not," Dr. Goldsmith said.

According to Goldsmith, the college had been preparing for an event like this and many students say they fully support the decision.

"All we have to do is just kind of wait until this kind of thing runs its course," says FCC sophomore Rick Jimenez.

Garcia, on the other hand, says he's not so much worried about the disease itself as he is about getting proper tutoring.

"I'm just a little worried because I learn better face-to-face instead of online," Garcia said.

Fresno City College is currently planning for a return date of April 27.