Within the past year, schools have been trying to educate their students at least partially in person, while still protecting the students. Recently, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) released a system attempting to keep students safe in school.
Principal Moussa Hamka said the guidance from MDHHS is important because of unknown vaccination numbers.
“We’ve had thus far two (COVID) incidents where students have tested positive,” Hamka said. “Oftentimes when we start doing the contact tracing, parents will say that their children have been vaccinated, but (the parents) have not yet uploaded proof of vaccination. So we do not have an accurate count at this time.”
According to the infographic, if a student exposed to COVID-19 is fully vaccinated, they will not have to be quarantined. If a student gets tested once and continues to monitor their symptoms, then they are allowed to attend school. On the other hand, unmasked and unvaccinated students exposed to COVID-19 will stay home and return to school after seven days if they get a negative test.
“Everyone at Grosse Pointe South is wearing a mask, so then the next part we look at is are you between three and six feet,” Hamka said. “There is a difference in how we proceed based on vaccination status.”
According to Owen Domzalski ’23, the football team has had fewer incidents this year, and COVID-19 has had a lesser effect on the team.
“We played Renaissance for our first game, and they tested positive a couple days after,” Domzalski said. “Only the unvaccinated players on our team had to quarantine.”
Unvaccinated players on the football team were absent, which caused others to step in.
“Some people filled the shoes of the missing players, and we played just as well, so I’d say it (COVID) hasn’t affected us as much this year,” Domzalski said.
Teacher Margaret Pierce also finds the guidance from MDHHS to be beneficial to the students.
“I do think this will be helpful in keeping students at school, as opposed to at home.”