When COVID-19 cases started to rise earlier this year, spring and summer vacation plans were forced to be modified or cancelled. Now as the holiday season comes around, people are more compelled to travel to reconnect with family and relatives rather than just for leisure. Choosing to travel could potentially lead to getting the coronavirus and bringing it back to school.
Because of this, Trinity Prep has implemented new protocols and precautions to keep the campus safe from a COVID-19 outbreak. On October 28th, Trinity Prep released an email to parents with procedures for COVID-19 safety during travel for the holiday season. This letter introduced a plan including remote learning on November 30th through December 2nd, along with additional information about exams. Upper School Principal Patrick Mulloy said that these school procedures originated from the school’s COVID-19 Task Force.
Associate Head of School Dennis Herron said the school’s guidelines were based on information from the CDC. According to the CDC, coronavirus symptoms typically take 2-14 days to show up after someone is exposed. Herron said that having the three online days would hopefully give people enough time to stay home and get tested if they develop symptoms before coming back to school.
“That gives us a safer feeling, so if someone were to contract it, they would find out about it and be able to stay home, let the school know and stay off the property,” Herron said.
Both Herron and Mulloy agreed that they would not have students and faculty returning to campus from traveling provide a negative test, but they said that it was discussed with the task force. Herron said that because of the risk of false negatives and false positives, a test would only be required to return back to campus after testing positive.
“We discussed everything you could think of,” Herron said. “We went through a whole litany of medical experts and the CDC advice.”
The task force was also responsible for creating a safety protocol to contain a potential COVID-19 case, which includes contact tracing of the person who has the virus. Anyone who sits within a six foot radius according to class seating charts would be quarantined. The student would also be asked to provide any additional people that they came in contact with so that they could also be sent home for quarantine.
Freshman Taylor Riley and world language teacher Bozena Lawson are two members of the Trinity family that are planning on traveling for the upcoming breaks. Riley said that she will be visiting her family in Sea Island, Georgia. Riley said she is traveling by car, which she feels is safer than flying. Riley is also using other methods to keep her and her family safe. She said that she won’t be traveling outside of her family’s home except to visit the beach, which is just a drive away.
“We’re just going to our own house, and probably just around each other mostly,” Riley said.
To stay safe at the beach, Riley said that she and her family will wear masks until they arrive at their chairs, which will be socially distanced from other people. Her family will also only interact with other members of their family.
Lawson said that she is driving to Tennessee to visit family as well. While she is visiting a smaller town, Lawson said that she will still be keeping her and her family safe with coronavirus protocols.
“We are definitely going to keep our masks on, make sure that we avoid crowds of people, and that we are going to keep distance as much as possible,” Lawson said.
While traveling increases the risk of catching the coronavirus, the school is taking every precaution to keep everyone on campus safe and urging everyone to stick to the same protocols issued by the CDC and the school.
“Be responsible,” Lawson said. “Be a responsible person and think about your own safety and the safety of others. This is what we can do.”
