DANVILLE, Calif. (KRON) — A middle school teacher in Danville tested positive for COVID-19 and caused an uproar among parents over how vaccinated students who may have been exposed to the virus are treated versus those who are not vaccinated.

KRON4’s Philippe Djegal explains why some parents say their kids were unfairly segregated.

Just a few weeks into the new school year and Charlotte Wood Middle School parents say the confusion over COVID-19 quarantine protocols Tuesday led to an unacceptable lack of communication between school officials and the parents.

“100-percent,” Kim Wagner said. “They were 100-percent segregated.”

“100-percent — yes,” Leena Wienckowski said. “I would classify it as a segregation.”

On Monday, parents at the school in Danville learned a fully-vaccinated teacher tested positive for COVID-19.

But when students returned to class Tuesday, Wagner says only those who were vaccinated were allowed to stay on campus.

Her daughter just turned 12-years-old and is not vaccinated.

Her teacher is the person who tested positive.

Wagner had to scramble to get her fiancé to pick their daughter up and tested for the virus.

“The principal was standing out front, shoving kids out of the gate,” Wagner said. “I understand some kids were left here for hours.”

Wienckowski’s 12-year-old son was also among the dozens of unvaccinated students separated from his vaccinated classmates.

At first, Wienckowski says the school required a negative test by the third day of possible exposure.

But in a letter to parents, the principal now says a negative test is required from the third day of the exposure notification.

In that case, she see’s no reason why her son should have missed any school.

“All of a sudden, I had this feeling of panic,” Wienckowski said. “How is he going to catch up. How is his grades? What’s going to happen to him.”

At Tuesday night’s San Ramon Valley Unified School District Board of Education meeting, several parents echoed those sentiments, voicing their frustrations over what they called a poor experience.

“If there was a large, real emergency, how would things be handled on this campus,” Wagner said. “It makes a lot of parents question it at this point.”

The parents who spoke with KRON4 say they’re exploring legal action against the school and school district based on how they handled this incident.