My daughter went on Ex Ed (experiential education trip) last week. This involved rafting, sleeping in a tent and a fair bit of rain. A couple of days after she returned she developed a sore throat and was tired. Given the trip that isn't a surprise. She had no fever, she hasn't not lost her sense of smell and she is pretty much just seems like a teenager with a very mild cold. The school did require everyone who went on the trip to either be vaxxed or show a negative COVID test, EXCEPT for the guides who were all unvaccinated. (good GOP Mormons).
Yesterday at school she fell asleep in class. How many high school kids fall asleep in class in the first full week of school? (answer pretty much everyone).
The teacher sent her to the nurse (which is in the elementary school). The nurse told her to get a COVID test and go home. She asked if she could go home with her brother at 3:45, but the nurse said she wanted my daughter out of their ASAP so I drove 25 min from Snowmass to school to pick her up at 3:20 reducing the school exposure to my daughter by 25 min.
When I arrived at the elementary school my daughter was sitting inside the entry of the elementary school because the nurse didn't want her in the infirmary. The nurse came out and told me that my daughter could return to school after she is 'symptom free' for 24 hours and has a negative COVID test. I asked about where I could get a COVID test and she said in town or the airport and I told my daughter, "lets go". The nurse was then kind enough to inform me that the testing sites close at 3 pm.
Last night I checked out the testing sites online and they said no appointment was required. I went to the airport at 8:30 am and discovered that an appointment is required. I worked my way through the very shitty user interface from my phone and got her registered. Because she is 'symptomatic' they did both a nasal and spit test. I also learned that the samples go to 'our lab' in Texas and fly out at the end of the day. Once the lab gets the test results (sometime tomorrow) the turn around is 24-48 hours with possible delay because of the weekend. Bottom line, my daughter is going to miss at least two days of school and maybe 4 while we wait on a test (assuming its negative).
Some quick observations:
1. In my brief time at school I saw two teachers and one police officer not wearing masks in school buildings. I also saw a nurse struggle to cover her nose while dealing with my daughter (presumptive COVID positive). I only saw 4 adults while picking up my daughter (the 4 I just called out).
2. The school is sending high school kids who are presumed COVID positive to the elementary school---why send a student from the high school where most people are vaxxed to a building where no students are vaxxed?
3. I totally understand the school wanting to act out of an abundance of caution with 'sick' kids, BUT if you send every tired kid with a runny nose home from school and make them miss 3-5 days of school while waiting for a COVID test result how damaging is that to their educational experience? In case you don't know the answer its VERY. I am also aware that it is possible to get a PCR test turned around in less than an hour---how about getting that functionality to the school so the school can both protect students and staff's health while not making every kid with a runny nose miss 4 days of school. While we are at it how about randoming testing of students and staff. They do this at my mom's nursing home. They do this at private schools all over the east coast. Given the risk of asymptomatic spread, random testing is a great way to provide useful data to make informed decisions and promote a safer school environment.
Lastly, from the front page of today's paper; to paraphrase-- our local fearless leaders indicated they couldn't support a mask mandate because people wouldn't like it. You know what my daughter didn't like? A chem assignment that involved using a 'gizmo' on her computer to fill a beaker to a certain water level ----over and over again. That was supposed to teach her is how to read the meniscus on a beaker, but in reality was more about the functionality of a program to 'pour and pipette' water. She doesn't want to do that, finds it boring and completely unuseful. She is right, but I tell her she has to do it. An inside mask mandate in a county that has been at high transmission for 3-4 weeks would actually be useful and make a difference but people don't want to do that either. I guess adults shouldn't have to do stuff they don't want to even if it makes sense, yet we demand that our kids do pointless stuff. I can see why teenagers are pissed.
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