A baseball player tested positive for covid-19 last Thursday, leading to the entire boys baseball team being sent home for 10 days to quarantine.
The following day, two seniors on the boys basketball team also received positive test results following the on-site testing occurring Wednesday resulting in their teammates also being sent home.
On Monday, it was revealed that six more students had tested positive for the virus, bring the total number of confirmed positives to nine.
Students who came within six-feet with any positive individuals in the classroom were also sent home to quarantine for two weeks. They can only return to campus with proof of a negative covid-19 pcr test.
“I think it’s smart to send everyone who came within six-feet from the positive individuals home but I can’t help but feel a bit sad,” senior Emma Salehi said after being sent home to quarantine on Friday. “Everything felt so normal again, but now I am back to square one. I don’t even have the virus but I have to pay the price. It’s also a very frustrating feeling knowing that I am missing school work but all the teachers who have emailed me back so far have been very considerate about the situation that I am in.”
“I definitely think that the school’s protocol is a bit flawed,” Salehi said. “One of the people sitting right next to me didn’t get sent home but there is also a likely chance that they got exposed too since we were all in the same class.”
“I just wish there was a way that in school they can make everyone sit six feet apart so there wouldn’t have to be people who have done nothing but be safe but still have to go home and miss weeks worth of school.”
Salehi also felt some confusion regarding the length of her mandatory quarantine.
The quarantine instructions students originally received stated that fully vaccinated individuals did not need to quarantine but students later received notice that all exposed individuals to quarantine regardless of vaccination status. This created confusion among many students sent home because most were fully vaccinated such as Salehi.
“They let us go without telling us much,” she said. “Everyone at the isolation site was confused on why they had to go home because most were vaccinated.”
However, it has now been clarified by administrators that students who were sent home can return to campus before the completion of the two weeks if their vaccination card gets approved by LAUSD’s Daily Pass and if they test negative for covid-19.
While Assistant Principals Michelle Brownridge Keller and Marc Strassner have sent Schoology messages and emails to students and parents assuring the health and safety of students, many students remain confused and panicked by LAUSD’s covid-19 protocol.
“When I heard there was a positive covid case, my anxiety started to rise and I started to spiral because we haven’t even gone through a week yet,” senior Fatiah Lawal said. “I don’t feel safe not necessarily because of how our school is handling but more so how the students are not taking the virus seriously and not taking the rules seriously like by taking off masks and not being completely honest about if they’ve been in contact with someone who has covid.”
“I hope it gets better so I can feel more safe and not have the added stress of covid in an already stressful school environment.”
