After the four months of in-person schooling lost due to Covid-19 this past spring, everyone craves to return to normal school. However, with this attempted return to normalcy comes the risk of mass spreading of Covid-19 between students and within their families. Therefore, school administrators are taking extra precautions to prevent the spread of Covid-19 while also allowing children to return to school. According to the NYC Department of Education, twenty-four schools and over 150 school classrooms in the NYC area have shut down due to Covid-19. Schools are also being wary by shutting down in areas where Covid cases are spiking in order to prevent possible outbreaks in those schools.
Nurse Amy Johnston of The Hewitt School was able to provide more information on this topic. When asked why Hewitt does not test their students, she replied, “a test is only giving you a snapshot of one moment in time.” In other words, once tested, a Hewitt student could leave school and immediately contract the Coronavirus, so the test wouldn’t have little preventative effect. To combat this, The Hewitt School requires each student to track their symptoms and check their temperature on the Ruvna app before heading to in-person school. At Hewitt, students are required to wear masks at all times (except when eating lunch) and must stay six feet apart from each other. Throughout the day, 9th and 10th grade students remain in one classroom with their advisory for the entirety of the school day, while teachers move around the school visiting each classroom. However, 11th and 12th graders move around the school building like normal because they are all in the same cohort. Nurse Amy also explained that to make Hewitt as Covid-safe as possible she had discussed safety protocols with Hewitt staff and students prior to allowing them into the building for in-person school. Assuming The Hewitt School does discover 2 cases of the Coronavirus which prove unrelated to one another, the school must shut down and teach classes online until they have contact-traced the students with Covid-19. Contact-tracing means The Hewitt School will need to determine who the Covid-positive students had been in contact during the last few days to determine a potential source of the virus. Nurse Amy also reminds students and faculty to “stay home if you feel sick,” wear a mask, and stay safe in and out of school!
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