It is a new school year, and that means we are starting over fresh! New students, new clothes, new friends, new perspective; moving on from the-school-year-that-must-not-be-named. We kissed online learning good-bye, and are fully back to in-person learning. Hallelujah!

On the sixth day of school, things started to change. It all started with a cough, sneeze, and a runny nose. Or perhaps it was a fever, stomach ache, and a sore throat. A student makes his or her way to the nurse and then the dreaded email comes out: The health office is closed. Only send emergencies until further notice.

We are all thinking the same thing: it’s that “Q” word.

Suddenly, the school campus was hustling and bustling with extra people present, working behind the scenes to bring students to a secluded area while waiting for parents to arrive. Belongings were packed, lunches were gathered and eaten, and teachers cried as they had to disassemble their Chromebook carts yet again after spending so much time getting those dang cords organized just right.

Don’t make me say that “Q” word.

There is a quiet buzz of students and teachers alike asking, “What’s going on?” seeing all the extra people on campus walking around with radios. Even behind the masks, you can tell they are stressed and worried as they usher students to their cars and share what little information they can with parents. We are all guessing why they are here, but we do not know for sure… yet.

Don’t make me say that “Q” word.

Ding! The dreaded email has arrived: Emergency Staff Meeting After School. The meeting where we talk about that ugly “Q” word and will survey the damage that this COVID tornado did at our school. It must have been wishful thinking assuming that the tornado would somehow circle completely around our school bubble and that we would all remain unaffected by its wrath.

The mood is somber at the meeting as we wait for the band-aid to get ripped off.

“Sooner or later we knew it was going to hit us.”

Please don’t say that “Q” word.

“This is not a reflection of our mitigation strategies.”

Please don’t say that “Q” word.

“As of tomorrow, we will have 44 remote learners.”

PLEASE don’t say that “Q” word.

“Students can come back after a certain number of days with a negative COVID test, or if they do not get tested will need to quarantine at home for 10 days.”

There it is: quarantine.

Teachers thought that we would not have to teach in-person and online at the same time this year. Parents thought helping their children navigate remote learning was a thing of the past. Unfortunately, we have not returned to prepandemic life yet and had to change our plans. There is still the possibility of teaching students remotely if a positive COVID case arises and students need to quarantine; in this case, we had to quarantine just under 10% of our student population.

That was the sixth day of school, and today is the thirty-sixth day of school. This has happened multiple times since the sixth day of school, although each time since has not had quite as many students quarantined at once. I shudder to think of what the next hundred days of school will look like if quarantining students continues at this rate for the rest of the school year.

Please be safe out there. Nobody is looking forward to hearing about that “Q” word again.

Photo by Nandhu Kumar from Pexels

The post appeared first on .