OPINION: Looking Back on a School of COVID-19 at Moeller

It has been 14 months since the coronavirus has shut down schools and it has been nearly a year being back in-person at school.  Going through a full year of school, it's time to look back at Moeller's actions in response to the COVID-19 virus and see what went well and what did not.

Sign promoting social distancing

Credit: Ohio Department of Health

According to Mrs. Cindy Neuhaus, Moeller’s school nurse, there were 60 students who were at Moeller 48 hours before receiving a positive test result. For example, this number could apply to a student that was at school on Monday and Tuesday and stayed home on Wednesday to get tested.  This does not include the students who had symptoms over a weekend, long break, or who just missed school beforehand.  In short, we can confidently say that there were 60 Covid-positive students in the building this year during their infectious periods. While we know the number of students who were at Moeller during their infectious period, we do not know the number of the student body who have caught Covid.  Even though we do not know that number, Mrs. Neuhaus said, “It’s well over 100 students that have been diagnosed (with Covid) but only 60 were considered onsite.” 

This means that roughly 7% of Moeller’s total student body not only had Covid at some point this year, but were in the building while infectious.

Though the numbers weren’t provided to us, the Crusader estimates from conversations with a few faculty members that at least 10 faculty members have tested positive this year with Covid.

At the beginning of the year, Moeller released a playbook of all the new rules and regulations in place to respond to the pandemic.  In the playbook, Moeller outlined that students were to always wear masks except when eating or drinking, students must try to maintain a social distancing of 6 feet when possible and if not, maintain a distancing of 3 feet.  In addition, when entering the building, every student, guest, or worker had to fill out a survey regarding symptoms or exposure. Then a staff member would take your temperature.  There would also be a cleaning crew going around the school cleaning door handles and the handrails.  If a student who you sat next to in class caught Covid, you would have to quarantine for 2 weeks with no exceptions. 

These rules were obviously strict, but they were necessary going into the year to ensure that Moeller was taking the correct precautions to go back to school 5 full days a week. 

The biggest fear of new rules among students was the quarantining rule.  If a student sat next to 4 different people in 7 classes, 4 others in Mentor Group, as well as 3 other people at lunch, that would mean that that student relies on some 35 other people not to catch Covid in order to avoid quarantine.

Nonetheless, quarantining was a fear among the student body and resulted in the quarantining of 200+ students, including Paddy O'Donnell, who has been quarantined 3 times this year.  In addition to this, students being quarantined were not catching Covid and only on a couple occasions did the student test positive to Covid after sitting next to a Covid positive student.  Despite the quarantining policy being strict, it was deemed essential to come back to school, and likely prevented additional spread throughout the building. The number of cases the policy prevented, obviously, cannot be calculated.

Mrs. Kariofiles screening Paddy O’Donnell

However, the quarantining was not the worst part of Moeller's reaction to the pandemic.  Every morning, everybody entering the building had to take a survey that asked questions about if you coughed that morning or if you had a stomachache or a runny nose.  If you did have those symptoms and you marked it down on the survey, you would have to stay home. 

Even after you completed the survey, when you walked in, a staff member would certify that you completed the survey and then take your temperature.  This number was a horribly inaccurate number with several students coming in as a body temperature too low for the scanner to read even though they were alive and healthy.  This was a ridiculous measure that was in place with the intention that sick people would be forced to stay home and could not fake the system.  However, a student with a fever may not always be detected by a thermometer and could simply lie on the questionnaire to get into school. 

Beyond this, communication to students was virtually nonexistent.  Parents would receive regular communication regarding Covid, but students received nothing.  After talking with Mrs. Neuhaus, I found out that if a student were quarantined, they would never receive an email, simply the parent would receive the email and the student would hope that the parent read the email before going to school the next day.  In addition to this, it was never communicated to the student body whenever ANYBODY at Moeller tested positive. Even with considerations of privacy and HIPAA, it seems logical students should be made aware of case numbers without using any names. 

We know this information was able to be send out because the parents and faculty and staff were receiving the emails, but the administration chose not to notify the students.  I spoke with Clay Matthews ’21, and when speaking about communication to the student body with Covid cases, he said, “I don’t understand why they couldn’t tell us”.  Students were frustrated because we had a right to know what was happening in our school. However, the school decided to overlook students as if we weren’t allowed to take part in the conversation.  This lack on communication is upsetting because students are the people going in and out of school each day, and we were not even able to know what was happening.

It is important that while we look at Moeller's reaction, knowing what we know now, that we realize that these precautions were all in place to justify going back to school.  It was a daunting task to return to school in person, and many would say that it was a dangerous task, but it was one that school had to work through to have students back in person.  Thanks to the precautions taken, there were no in class transmissions until the week before Thanksgiving. Though the communication of the school’s week to week status and numbers was spotty, it is important that we give Moeller the credit for making it possible to return year-round.