Apr 15, 2020 2 min read

State police have closed their training academy in Hershey after an enlisted staff member tested positive for COVID-19.

Ryan Tarkowski, state police’s communications director, said they were notified that the staff member tested positive Saturday. He could not say when that staffer was last at work.

“That was their assigned location. That’s why it was closed down,” Tarkowski said.

According to a news release, the academy will be closed for at least two weeks. The current class will continue instruction from home, using Canvas, an online learning platform.

Tarkowski said the academy is capable of housing two classes at once. The 158th class graduated March 27, leaving only the 100 cadets of the 159th class when state police learned of the coronavirus case.

“It was down to one class, which made the dorm life a little more tenable for social distancing,” Tarkowski said.

According to Tarkowski, state police had already put in place a contingency plan for distance learning in the event the academy needed to close.

“It’s the first time that we’ve done distance learning for the cadets,” Tarkowski said. “The leadership has been working on that since COVID-19 became top of mind for everybody.”

The current class was initially slated to graduate July 24. Because of coronavirus concerns, state police had already planned to have the cadets done by mid-June, according to Tarkoswki.

“That’s still the plan. They’d like to graduate early,” Tarkowski said. “How this all works is going to be up in the air, like so many other things.”