“I heard he got quarantined!” 

“Yeah, I heard she did too.”

Quarantines: they seem like a puzzle that we can never quite solve. Over the past semester, the school days have been filled with uncertainty and anxiety. It would be an understatement to say the first semester was different for everyone. Many students have experienced at least one quarantine, and some were even sent home two or three times so far this year. During the first semester, any student exposed within 6 feet and for longer than 15 minutes to someone who had tested positive was forced to quarantine for 14 days.  Although this was a safe move for the district to make, it caused many distractions to the students’ and teachers’ workday.  

After research, it was clear most of the students who contracted COVID  were exposed outside of school –not by sitting next to someone who was positive. According to the school nurse, Robin Robinson, “the results of the study from 1st semester is really what pushed along the decision to ease up on quarantine rules.”  It seems that masks were doing what they were intended to do.  

Therefore,  the quarantine rules changed for the second semester.  The CDC decided that in-class exposure quarantines were no longer necessary, as long as all students were wearing a mask. However, lunch quarantines due to an infected person within 6 feet of you without a mask,  are still full go.  The district believes these new guidelines will still keep everyone healthy and will help improve grades. 

Hopefully, these new rules will help bring back some normalcy for learning in the classroom.  Expect to have a more complete classroom feel as we continue on this crazy 2020-21 school year.