Rose basketball highlights
Issue 1
September 27th, 2019
New protocol helps students
SAT. | 02-12-22 | NEWS
With a new year comes a new COVID protocol. Now that the required quarantine period has been changed to only five days, students are missing less school, and not as likely to fall behind in their schoolwork.
On Dec. 27, 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that it is safe for people who contract COVID-19 to only quarantine for five days with an additional five days of constant mask-wearing. Pitt County Schools decided to pick up this policy, and it now applies to all students and staff.
When considering quarantine policies, Rose looks toward the North Carolina Health Department and North Carolina Toolkit guidelines. Some of the guidelines they suggest do not affect students and staff who contract COVID due to the fact that the school already abides by them.
“Since we are already a mask-wearing campus, the five days of mask wearing [upon returning to school] is not a big deal for us,” school nurse Kara Stocks said.
When students miss school due to COVID, the only way their teachers are required to keep them updated on what they miss in class is by posting assignments on Canvas. Teachers are allowed to Zoom, but do not have to.
“I already Zoom everyday to post the lesson for my students to rewatch if they did not understand during class,” math teacher Nicole Leary said. “So when one of
Photo by Emma Hastings
my students is out for COVID, it is not a big deal; they just hop on the Zoom.”
Every teacher has a different way of helping their students who are out for COVID. Senior Sydney Boyer missed part of the first and second week of school this semester due to contracting COVID, and says that all her teachers had a different way of keeping her in the loop.
“With my math class, I just jumped on the Zoom everyday and it was the easiest to keep up with while I was in quarantine,” Boyer said. “My AP Literature class was completely different, and [I] just made up missed work when I got back.”
Boyer says she does not have a preference for the way her teachers helped her while she was out, but she is thankful that her quarantine only had to be five days. Coming back to school, wearing a mask was not a problem for Boyer because she has no second period and does not eat lunch at school.
“I really like that quarantine has gotten shorter because if it was longer, I feel like I would have gotten behind,” Boyer said.
