I would really like people's POV on my situation please as I'm not sure how or if to proceed with any further action. I'll include the detail so as not to drip feed but the TLDR is that I caught covid off a student but received no covid policy from the Uni I was teaching at.
I am self employed and for the purpose of this thread let's say that I am a self employed embroiderer who has worked from home for 10 years. I am the only person in my 'company' an very rarely attend anyone elses place of work (approx 4 times a year) and mainly how I work is that I email clients who tell me their embroidery needs, I make it and then post it to them. I'm outlining this to basically frame that I am unaware of usual policies or ways of working that an office or university may have as I have never worked in these environments.
A month or so ago an acquaintance of mine, Lana, got in touch to ask if I would lead a week long workshop at the Uni she works at. This would be fo the MA textiles students who haven't had training in my type of embroidery before. I was pleased to be asked as I had been thinking about doing workshops and I set about preparing the course. For added context, in the weeks before the course I recieved no support as to how to schedule or put together th teaching and any emails I sent (about integral info I.e number of students, if we would have the correct equipment an so on) would take about a week to get a response. Fine I thought, this must be what teaching is like an it's on me to problem solve on the week and follow my intuition for the course framework.
I asked Lana what the covid rules an expectations were and was told (over the phone so no record of this) that every student knows to do 2 lateral flow tests a week an that there is hand gel on site. In my potential naivety or ignorance (having never worked in this environment or with anyone but myself) I again thought, fine, that must be how it is.
The week was a success and again I was left to my own devices and only saw another member of staff (Rita) face to face on 2 occasions.
On Tuesday one of the students said they were unwell but not to worry, it wasn't Covid as they had taken a test an the GP had given them antibiotics for a throat infection. Naively I accepted this and, knowing what I know now, I understand that I should have sent the student home then an there until they provided a negative PCR or had no symptoms. However, in my ignorance I didn't know that these are the usual covid policies as I have neve taught before or worked in a "normal" work environment. I trusted that the student would be following whatever procedures they should be and that was that. The nature of embroidery is that I was sometimes in closer contact with the students so that I could get a close look at thier techniques but equally I had the door open a lot of the time an the class was often split in to two groups of 8 or sometimes one to one time. I was getting the train there and back too.
On Saturday I got an email from the poorly student to say that they had taken a PCR an it was positive. I took a lateral flow (which was negative) and a PCR the Same day. My PCR came back th next day as positive.
I have been pretty poorly since then and now I am finally feeling better it is dawning on me not only how naive I was, but also how poorly the uni has gone about this.
I got no Covid policy prior to teaching. I have now sent Lana a text (on Monday) and an email (on Wednesday) asking her if she is aware of the covid out break. I also sent Rita a text yesterday too. No response to any of these messages. So currently I don't know if they know about it, and if they do they haven't informed me.
I take some responsibility for my ignorance to not send the student home. Perhaps if I was used to working in a peopled environment I would have known to do that. I also feel awful that I put my children and my MIL, an therefore, my recently in cancer remission FIL, at risk too, as my MIL looked after my kids for one day during the week when my DP couldn't.
Lana has recently had a hard time personally which she shared with me before the course began so I am sensitive to not add to her plate. But equally I feel like I (and many other people - one student attended a wedding on the final day!) have been put at risk due to thier negligence. Not to mention that I haven't been able to work whilst I've been so ill.
What, if anything, should I do next? I am due to do more teaching there in a month and am in two minds about it. I have another teaching job at another uni in a week an today got a v long and informative covid policy with thier expectations from me as a freelancer and I was like "why didn't I get this before from the other uni! I would have been so much better protected!"
Sorry for the long post. Any thoughts welcomed.