Covid limited students last year in school. They could only go one way in certain hallways, use hand sanitizer often, and wear masks all year long. Not to mention there wasn’t any group projects. This year things have changed a bit. Masks weren’t mandated at first for students, but now they are due to rising cases. Sports are more expansive this year, or going to more places for meets or games. No more one-way signs in the hallways.

Notably,Everything dealing with Covid goes through school nurse Joy Rhodes, assistant principal Lawton informed. Rhodes states,”I have a spreadsheet to keep everything organized. I add information to it daily. I also have a binder with everything printed out, as well as every teacher’s seating chart and bus seating chart. I am also frequently in contact with the Health Department.” According to Rhodes the CDC says that all the symptoms of Covid include: Fever, Chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, body or muscle aches, headaches, loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion, runny nose, nausea or vomiting, and diarrhea. She informs that wearing masks will slow down the spread of Covid, and the amount of people quarantined if they’re worn properly.

Furthermore,Lawton says the protocol is the following when someone test positive for Covid: call parents, notify the health department, and contact trace through Rhodes.She says they have to tell people to go home, and can’t disobey what the health department has advised them to do. Lawton is undecided with mask mandates. She said they “can be a pain” although wearing masks last year she never got sick. She states,” The main thing is to make sure you kids are safe.”

According to her the governor left it up to the school whether to enforce a mask mandate at school. Whatever the governor says the school has to do about mask mandates—depending on the situation— the school has to obey. The rising of Covid cases caused the health department to get involved; they said we had to wear masks. According to The New York Times there are 249,000 cases in West Virginia alone; 3,866 deaths as of October 7. Globally they also inform that there are 44.2 million cases globally; 710,000 deaths.  Lawton also informs that Covid killed structure, changed social interaction, and the consistency of the school day.

If you don’t already know there are said to be two potential origins of Covid according to bio teacher Williams. She said one theory is that the virus originated from bats, but it’s a matter of if it came organically from bats and entered through the human wet markets from China. She says another theory is that the virus was cultivated in a lab and escaped the lab. She also says that Covid has affected EVERY aspect of her teaching, with students being constantly out.