Luca Katzen, ‘22

As we are officially a month into in-person pandemic learning, many students find themselves wondering if the BHSEC’s COVID-19 precautions are actually effective at preventing the virus.

When blended learning first resumed in the Fall of 2020 and the Spring of 2021, BHSEC was praised by students and teachers alike for being exceptionally Covid- safe. Students and teachers had temperature checks to enter the building, mask mandates, smaller class sizes, and plenty of outdoor instruction to prevent the rampant spread of the virus. In addition, there was weekly Covid testing for all students, which provided proof that the restrictions we abided by were effective. As a result, while learning was far from normal, it was almost certain that the Coronavirus would not be transmitted at school.

However, the only current protection between students, teachers, and the Coronavirus are masks and the school’s exceptionally high vaccination rate. We are no longer required to take our temperature or sanitize our hands before entering the school building, our class sizes are back to their full capacity, and there is no longer frequent Covid-19 testing. Instead, we are greeted with somewhat random Covid safety rules, like only going up/down on certain staircases or filling out Covid surveys (which have the same three questions every day), confusing both students and teachers. If I didn’t have Covid symptoms yesterday, I likely do not today, and I am still vaccinated; my survey results today will be identical to yesterday’s- why must I continue to fill it out? It should be noted that while there has not been an increase in Covid cases at school, there are also almost no precautions to prevent an outbreak of Covid if the city were to experience another spike in cases.

Am I suggesting that we should have tighter Covid restrictions? No. Instead, I am suggesting that our Covid restrictions should be logical based on our knowledge of how the Coronavirus spreads. Given that there have not been any Covid cases at BHSEC yet, it wouldn’t make sense to institute strict mandates similar to those of the pre-vaccine era. However, the mandates we do have should make sense for our school building, vaccination rates, and community. For example, instead of having to complete daily Covid surveys, students and teachers should just be required to take their temperature before entering the building, as most students absentmindedly answer the questions the same way every day. In addition, instead of requiring everyone to go up/down on certain staircases to reduce traffic, which no one ever follows, people should just be reminded to keep a safe distance from their peers and prevent crowding in the halls.

In fact, the ineffectiveness of BHSEC’s Covid guidelines has recently been proven as many students and teachers have continued to come to school even when they are experiencing Covid-like cold symptoms. Not only did the survey not prevent any of the people who came to school sick from entering the building, the ‘Bard Plague’ continued to spread even with our current Covid precautions in place.

Although the world is moving out of the COVID-19 pandemic, we still need to keep in mind that over 10% of our student body is not vaccinated, and the virus can still spread. While our community is a safer environment than most, we need to make sure that we are taking the necessary steps to keep BHSEC a Covid-safe place to think.