School adjusts to post-coronavirus reality 

As of Friday, March 13, County Superintendent Dr. Mary Ann Dewan has announced the closure of all schools in Santa Clara county through April 10 due to the growing public health threat.

In light of the coronavirus pandemic, the school had been following CDC regulations and county-level restrictions to minimize the threat level to students. 

Previously, the administration had canceled all student and staff travel outside of Santa Clara County, all athletic events outside of Santa Clara County or CIF’s Santa Clara Valley League, all field trips, indoor or outdoor group assemblies greater than 100 people and all on-campus parent meetings.

A threat that once seemed continents away has resulted in more than 1629 confirmed cases nationwide and 41 deaths as of March 13, according to the CDC. As the pandemic becomes more widespread, its local impacts become more and more apparent, and difficult decisions will have to be made.

 

Dozens of canceled activities

In Santa Clara County alone, there have been 79 confirmed cases and 1 announced death. As a precaution to this imminent threat, schools are postponing extracurricular activities and events to reduce the chance of exposure. 

Meanwhile, in other parts of the county, private schools including Menlo-Atherton High and Cathloic Dioceses schools like Bellarmine have been closed down after threats of the virus. More broadly, school districts in San Francisco as well as LAUSD have shut down completely. Menlo-Atherton has closed down for the week so they can sanitize the school and the Catholic Dioceses are shut down for the next two weeks. 

Other public schools in our county are also taking measures against the virus. Monta Vista High has decided to cancel their school’s junior prom and Cupertino High has combined their junior and senior proms. At this point, however, no public schools in Santa Clara County have been closed down. 

The pandemic has even resulted in event cancellations on a larger, national scale — the NBA has been suspended, NCAA tournaments and March Madness have been canceled, the NHL has suspended its seasons, the San Jose Airport has been closed indefinitely and Coachella along with Stagecoach has been postponed to the fall.

“It feels like the apocalypse,” said sophomore Jordyn Sin. “Everywhere you go, corona is the only thing anyone talks about and you can’t go anywhere without being worried.”

 

Policy changes

On account of preventing further spread, the administration   has implemented new measures including the prohibition of parents and visitors on school grounds during the school day, modification to meetings and conferences and the cancellation of all rentals of indoor LGSUHSD facilities through the end of the school year.

The Santa Clara County has also made a decision to restrict all “mass gatherings” of more than 1,000 people for three weeks starting March 10. The two main goals of the ban are to reduce the number of infections and slow down the spread of the virus in the community, officials said.

Districts throughout Santa Clara County have decided on an even stricter policy change —  banning all upcoming school and district gatherings of 100 or more people, excluding graduations which should take place as planned.

The White House and CDC have recommended new preventative measures for Santa Clara County that would prohibit gatherings of more than 250 people. Currently, county officials have affirmed that they will not be amending the county’s current ban to follow the White House’s suggestions.

Still, as of March 12, the county Public Health Department was recommending  that school still remain in session; as a result, teachers have been asked by the administration to take certain precautions in their classrooms.

For example, math teacher Jennifer Mantle has set up hand sanitizer stations in front of the door and recommended that students bring their own supplies. 

Teachers have been instructed to wipe down their desks before and after every class and to make students wash or at least use hand sanitizer before leaving. 

However, several teachers who hadn’t previously had Clorox and other cleaning supplies in their classrooms have voiced concerns about the infeasibility of this requirement due to the unavailability of cleaning supplies. Since Clorox, Purell and other cleaning agents have sold out in most stores, finding a sufficient amount of supplies to adequately maintain cleanliness in classrooms has proven difficult. Students have also been told to stop taking bathroom passes and phones to the bathroom because those can be used to easily transmit the virus.

The administration has also installed hand sanitizer stations at some of the key places around the school, including in front of the Office and Student Center.

If there was a case of a student at school with the virus,the Public Health Department would determine on a case-by-case basis whether closure of the school is warranted. 

In an email, superintendent Mike Grove relayed that if there was a case of the virus at the school, Saratoga High would shut down for a few days to sanitize and then reopen. The school would only close for a longer period of time if there are greater numbers of students and staff tested positive for the coronavirus. 

 

Reactions from the community

The continuation of school throughout this crisis has sparked outrage from students and parents alike. Some parents have chosen to keep their children at home as a precaution. Others are disappointed due to the cancellation of extracurricular activities. 

The virus has resulted in the cancellation of the rest of the robotics season nationwide, upsetting several students who had spent countless hours building the robots.

“We're a little disappointed because we've invested a lot of our time,” senior and robotics hardware lead Rohan Rao said.

Speech and debate national qualifiers have been postponed and states has been canceled, cutting short the season for many. This is especially upsetting for the  team considering that a lot of the goals and tournaments that they have worked towards are being disrupted by the virus. 

“We all worked so hard for the entire year, spending countless hours and lots of money, just to get everything we’ve worked towards canceled,” state qualifier junior Neil Shah said. “I’m a junior so I at least have next year but it sucks for our seniors who were on path to do great at all these national qualifiers.”

Club Rush and all food fundraisers have also been canceled, affecting many clubs who were relying on these opportunities to get more funds. 

For example, according to sophomore Cheryl Wu, the economics club uses much of its funding to buy food for meetings and donate to the Youth Economic Initiative. The funding would have also been used to attend the National Economics Challenge in San Francisco; however, the club is currently not allowed to go because it classifies as a school field trip. 

A situation of this magnitude hasn’t really been dealt with by the Saratoga community, assistant principal Kerry Mohnike said. “I think the hardest part is the disappointment that’s coming with all the cancellations and how you navigate people’s feelings when there’s real things going on in the world,” she said. “People understand that intellectually but emotionally it’s really frustrating for people. Trying to be nice to people and not panicking is really important.”