The Omicron Infection
On Wednesday, Jan 4. The Sacred Heart community found itself back in the throes of the pandemic as Omicron coronavirus variant cases surged across the San Francisco Bay Area. For the first week and a half, students and teachers logged onto zoom classes each morning, eagerly anticipating word of when it would be safe to return to campus. On Jan 12, the community was cleared to resume in-person school. However, it became apparent throughout the first week of the semester that Sacred Heart Administration chose a, perhaps, more precautionary response to the surge than many of the surrounding Peninsula schools. For some schools, classes were only virtual for the first two days to allow for testing. For others, students returned to campus right after the break just as they had before the surge.
SHP Principal, Dr. Whitcomb explained, “We really wanted to get the chance to come back to school in person, but we needed to receive all the test results first.” The test results are essential to coming back to school because otherwise there would be people who are asymptomatic that come to school and expose the rest of the school. Around 40.5% of confirmed COVID cases are asymptomatic. Without confirmed COVID-negative test results, there is an increased risk of cases spreading across campus. Dr. Whitcomb also reasoned that “[the SHP administration] did not know how many teachers were exposed or had tested positive and would need to quarantine or isolate.” The added complications of the likely possibility that teachers would have had to be virtual was another rationale for the decision to begin online.
Similar to the majority of Sacred Heart students, junior, Armin Hamrah, was excited when school was finally moved back on campus. “It is a better experience overall to be here … It can be embarrassing on zoom, and when in person, you are able to engage and I believe that human interaction is important to learning,” he said. Armin feels that despite it being easier to take notes in virtual school, the valuable human interaction that one experiences among peers in-person makes on-campus learning more desirable. Transitioning from break is never fun, however, virtual school proved to be “a good transition from the break to in-person school” and one change that came out of virtual school was “ the gator block switch, which is good.” Armin believes that gator block at the end of the day is good because it allows less contact because not everyone wants to go to clubs. Those who do not want to go to clubs are able to leave and go home. The end goal is to be on campus for academics, so this helps ensure this criteria is sustained.
I also had the honor of capturing Mr. Moffat’s opinion on coming back to school and getting out of virtual school. When asked what he thought about virtual school he had a very simple and direct answer, “ [he] hated it.” Most teachers feel the same way he does. They do not like virtual school because teachers have to use twice the amount of energy and twice the amount of work. As Mr. Moffat said, “ virtual school takes twice as much work and yields about 40% of the results, so not nearly as productive as it should be.” While the teachers were completely different because they had to work harder, the students did not appear to be the same over zoom. Mr Moffat mentioned that he could tell that students are not as engaged over zoom and they are not as joyful. They seem to be more scared to participate and the class becomes more solemn. While students liked some things about zoom school, Mr. Moffat said “ [he] liked nothing that happened at all.” He also mentioned that, “ He would rather be in person because a lot of what school is about is what happens outside of the classroom and all of that is gone when school is put in zoom.” Mr. Moffat believes that the majority of the teachers community feels the same way as him. Teachers were affected a lot more than the student body, it was harder on them and it was more tiring for them.
Other schools did not have the same policies as Sacred Heart. For instance, at Gun High School, not many things changed. Owe Schroeder, a Freshman at Gun, was able to provide his thoughts on the covid policies at Gun. When asked what his schools are doing about covid, he said, “ They are not going much, it feels like they do not care about us.” He says that his school is not requiring any Covid tests in order to come to school and they do not have strict mask policies. When he goes to get lunch, “ the outside lunch lines are like a big mob pit of students.” He says that school is chaotic when it comes to Covid. He says that their school will not go online whatsoever, too many people will complain and that will be a big problem for the school. When asked about what percent of the school has covid, he responded with, “ around 10% of students have covid and 330 of the 4000 students and faculty at the school have tested positive.” A significant amount of Gun have tested positive, yet they will remain in person with no virtual school in sight.
Regarding a more local school, MA has slightly stricter policies than Gun. Rowan Hanley, a Freshman at MA was able to provide information about MA’s policies. When asked, “ What is MA doing differently after the break?” He responded with, “ Since the break, MA has passed out a kit to every student including kn95 masks and two at home covid tests.” MA is saying that if you think you have symptoms you should test on your own. They are basing the testing off the honors system. Rowan believes that this method is “ inefficient” but he also believes that, “ They do what they have to do.” When asked, “What are teachers doing about outbreaks?” He responded with, “ The teachers have become a lot stricter about keeping your mask on.” MA teachers and faculty members are taking some precautions and showing that they care about their students. As of January 10th about 10% of MA tested positive. A lot of these students were Hanley’s friends. When asked what his friends were doing once they got covid, he responded with, “ They took proper precautions and made sure to use the self tests. They got two negative tests before they came to school.” The MA community seems to be taking the proper precautions and they are attempting to stay safe. When I asked him, “ What is the future going to look like for MA?” He responded with, “ The Ma community is extremely resilient and they are going to stay in person as long as they can.” He believes that the community is going to stay in person and never go virtual if they do not go before the end of January. All things considered, MA is doing alright with how they are dealing with things. According to Rowan, “ MA could be doing better, but they could also be doing worse.”
In San Jose, Bellarmine has begun to do everything in their power to stay in person. I was able to speak with a Freshman at Bellarmine, Shrey Chettiar. When asked, “ What is your school doing?” He responded with, “ They are doing this thing where the desks are 6 feet away from each other again.” They are taking a unique approach to staying in person. No school has gone back to distanced desks quite yet. Shrey also mentioned that “ Masks have to be on inside and if they are not then you have to go talk to the principal.” Bellarmine is enforcing their policies a lot more harshly than MA and Gun. As of January 17th, 130 students out of 1600 tested positive and were out. In addition, 14 faculty members tested positive and their classes had to be held virtual. One of Chettiars teachers happened to be one of the 14. He said, “ It was weird to be on campus and have the campus a lot more empty than before.” Some students decided to stay home as well because they preferred to not be in school with the omicron variant lurking around. This is similar to a policy at Sacred Heart. When asked whether he likes it, he responded with, “ [He] thinks it is being run well.” It is good to know that the Bellarmine students are content with the way things are being run. Unlike Schroeder and Hanley, Chettiar believes that there is a chance that Bellarmine will go virtual. He said, “ If Bellerming goes through another tiny Omicron surge, they will go virtual for a bit.” He hopes they will not, but if they do he knows it is for the better.
