We all can agree that Covid-19 was the most unexpected slap in the face of 2020. Our entire nation, even the world, had to readjust and it took time to figure out the proper protocols necessary to keep everyone safe. Even with establishing rules and regulations, we spent a whole school year at home – online. Thousands of students, including myself, were all greatly affected by our online academic experience. That’s why this year it is so exciting to be back in person and it is essential that we do everything in our power to stay safe so we can stay in school, in person.  Covid-19 is still very much a real and a huge threat that we have to be aware of every day, and in order for us to be allowed to come back to school, the district had to come up with strict rules to keep us attending.  I am of the belief that the protocols CNUSD set up to keep the students safe are good ones, ones that will keep us safe, while also allowing us to stay in school.  That is why I know how important it is to follow the protocols.

Once we returned, I had friends who contracted COVID and others who were quarantined from exposure.  The stories they told me about the process just didn’t seem to add up.  In an endeavor to figure out why my friends had different explanations of how the safety plan works, I did some investigating.

The first thing I did was read the CNUSD Covid-19 Safety Plan.  I then interviewed the Santiago administrator in charge of sending names of Covid-19 positive students to the district office.  According to Dr. Smith, students at CNUSD must wear their masks any time they are indoors but may remove them when they are outdoors.  They’re also asking teachers to keep strict seating charts for both classes and Office Hours in order to make contact tracing easier.  She then explained the contact tracing protocol.

CNUSD Contact Tracing Protocol:

1. A parent/guardian calls the school to report their child has tested positive for COVID-19.
2. The staff member taking the call will ask the parent/guardian the date of the positive test, the date of their

   

   first symptoms, and the date of the last time they were on campus.

3. All of this information will be sent to the health office where they alert Dr. Smith and she alerts the teachers.
4. The teachers then need to look at their seating chart and see who was in close range of the infected student, giving those names back to Dr. Smith and CCing the district personnel in charge of contact tracing in the Health Office.
5. These names are also sent to the district for them to work with a hired Contact Tracing Company where they alert the students that need to quarantine.
6. Once the names of the students are sent, all teachers and students receive an email (shown here).
7. The students that were considered in close contact with the infected student will then be called by the district office to alert them that they were in close contact with an infected student.
8. Page 10 of the CNUSD Covid-19 Safety Plan will indicate whether or not a student must quarantine, test, and/or may attend school or extracurriculars.

As you can see, there’s a lot do to when a student has tested positive and time is of the essence.  CNUSD, no doubt has its hands full.  I can’t imagine juggling this process for so many schools.  This, however, is their plan, and one I believe will keep us safe.  The CNUSD School Board ratified this plan and the purpose of this investigation was not to argue the merits of the plan itself but to assure that it is being followed.  And, after investigating and interviewing students, teachers, and admin it’s clear that there is confusion about the plan.  Time is a very precious and valuable thing that sometimes does not work in your favor. Unfortunately for CNUSD’s safety plan, time is not their friend.

One of the faults that seems to be apparent, is the lack of teacher awareness in protocols.   After interviewing a 10th-grade teacher, who has asked to stay anonymous, they stated that the teachers are not fully aware of the procedures and are frustrated because everything is not appearing to be consistent.  This could be because the plan was rolled out quickly and teachers haven’t had enough time to ask questions or because some of the protocols have changed over the past few months.  My source said that some students who were contact traced (in close contact with a Covid-19 positive student) were not even directly notified that they had been exposed, leading them to stay in school longer, at risk of infecting someone else. There are also some cases where the teacher is not even notified, they just have an excused absence on their roster, and later find out that the student had Covid-19.  This particular teacher indicated that this happened at the beginning of the year and so she wasn’t sure that It is possible that this is the result of parents/guardians not notifying the school of the reason behind the student’s absence, another problem with the system, but one that is out of the hands of CNUSD.

There is also some discrepancy with the accuracy of the case numbers being displayed. A senior teacher I interviewed indicated that another teacher tested positive for COVID-19 at Santiago and it was never reported on the CNUSD Covid-19 Dashboard, again showing that something slipped through the cracks.  It makes me wonder how many other cases weren’t updated for the public to see?

In one of my classes, in particular, a student tested positive for Covid-19.  Everyone at the school was altered via email, but NONE of the students at this student’s table were emailed nor called telling them that they were in close contact with a student who tested positive.  This means that in this case, something slipped through the cracks.  I even followed up with the students weeks later – thinking that maybe the system was behind in notifying students, but they still had not received a call nor email indicating that they were in close contact.

The lack of consistency seems to be a reoccurring issue because while interviewing another teacher about all of the new protocols, they said the same thing: “There is a lack of consistency and urgency”. They also informed me that they are not notified when students are allowed to come back after quarantine, so they don’t know how long that student is out.  In fact, more than one teacher reported that a student who was supposed to be quarantined returned to the school prior to the end of their 10-day quarantine.  Teachers had no idea the student should not be in school (yet it should be noted that perhaps teachers may have missed an email alert), yet later received calls to send a particular student up, or security showed up at their door to remove the student.  Since interviewing these teachers it appears now that a new attendance “code” is in place alerting teachers that a student is out with the permission of the health office.  Since the HIPPA laws prevent the school from disclosing names it’s made this a little tricky, but I’m happy to see they are making modifications to improve awareness.

One 10th grade teacher mentioned that they’ve also had cases where they are notified of a student testing positive and they aren’t even asked for the names of the students with whom the student was in close contact.  This again is an example that occurred at the beginning of the year and hopefully was due to adjustments in protocols.

The students say the same thing.  They are not clear on the quarantine plan because some of the students come back not having completed their protocol.  Students should be receiving a letter or call with specifics detailing their quarantine, but some may not be reading their letters or simply refusing to follow the requirements.  Just visit the Facebook Transparent CNUSD group (I did not personally interview any of these parents) to see the frustrated parents speaking out. There are even parents flippantly laughing at the protocols, advertising that they’ve sent their students back early and the school has done nothing. A girl who attends Santiago was contact traced, and not vaccinated, leading the school to tell her she was not allowed to attend Homecoming. The reason her mother shared her frustration in the Facebook group was due to the fact that she was notified 8 days after she was exposed. For obvious reasons, you can imagine being upset if you were looking forward to Homecoming.  Some of the parents in the group went as far as to encourage this frustrated mom to just send her daughter to Homecoming suggesting that no one would ever know.

When I asked teachers what they think needs to be done to ensure our school stays safe, they said: (1) masks need to be worn correctly, (2) we need accurate numbers being reported, (3) everyone needs to be notified when someone they were in close contact with has tested positive, and (4) everything just needs to be more consistent and transparent.  I would agree with these requests and feel that at a minimum, these are things our district can provide.  I will acknowledge that none of the inconsistencies on the part of the district are malicious in nature – we are all trying our best.

When interviewing Dr. Smith, she says that their biggest challenge is time.  She acknowledges the fact that it’s also challenging when everyone has differing opinions on what needs to be done to keep the students and staff safe at school. She stated that they are still evolving, making changes as they go, making adjustments when needed, and learning along the way.

This safety plan was new to CNUSD, new to administration, new to teachers, new to parents, and new to students.  Of course, there will be mistakes, things will be missing and cases will slip through the cracks.  I am grateful to be in person.  I want to stay in person.  I know I’ll receive the best education from teachers if I’m sitting in a classroom and collaborating with my peers.  Help me stay in school, CNUSD, by making sure we are following the safety plan and following it as closely as possible.

*All interviewers wished to remain anonymous so it was difficult to fact check.