COVID-19 Cancels School and Events
Pandemic leads Santa Clara County to shut down schools from March 16 to April 3
By Katherine Rowe, Natalie Sarsfield, and Ben Shiverdaker
Pandemic leads Santa Clara County to shut down schools from March 16 to April 3
By Katherine Rowe, Natalie Sarsfield, and Ben Shiverdaker
In late January, the United States reported its first case of COVID-19 coronavirus in Washington state. As the virus continues to spread, many are taking serious precautions in an attempt to protect adults and immunocompromised people, the most atrisk groups, from contracting the disease as it has now been declared a national emergency and pandemic.
On March 13, the County of Santa Clara County Public Health Department announced that all public and private schools in the county will be closed and quarantined effective from March 16 to April 3. San José Unified School District released an official statement following the press conference held on Friday.
“We have worked side-by-side with our partners at the Santa Clara County Office of Education and the County of Santa Clara Public Health Department. The County of Santa Clara Public Health Department has issued new orders to slow the spread of COVID-19 in our community, reduce the number of people infected, and protect those who are most vulnerable to severe illness. Those orders have resulted in the entire San José Unified School District being quarantined to protect our students, our families, our teachers, our staff, and our community.”
Although teenagers are not a high-risk group for COVID-19, students like Ken Isaka, 11, are worried about the potential for carrying the virus into their households.
“I’m a little bit worried, not exactly for my safety, but I don’t want to get coronavirus, because I’m scared that my dad might get infected,” said Isaka. “I want to make sure that he stays safe, because I know a lot of people that die and get affected heavily are older men.”
Another side effect of the school closures has been the unforeseen cancellations of many school-wide events such as drama performances, the annual Crab Feed and the Benefit Concert.
As of right now, there is no plan to outright cancel the concert according to music teacher Lara Levy, but the program would “take a hit financially,” if that were the case.
“We’re looking at options like livestreaming it, things where we just sell a reduced subscription price and figure out a way to do our raffle that way,” said Levy. “It (wouldn’t be) devastating, but it would not be ideal. We do have a couple fundraisers, but this is one of our biggest ones. Everyone is frustrated. I feel bad for all the parent volunteers that have done the decorations and gotten the raffle prizes. They’ve done countless hours of work and I really want that to be shown off.”
The spring musical “Newsies” will also be postponed with new show dates to be scheduled as the original dates fall within the time frame of the mandated closure.
Principal Herb Espiritu is following the guidance of the district which is making decisions based off of recommendations from the county, state and federal offices for health.
“We want to listen to those recommendations as they come and unfortunately sometimes we have to make decisions that are tough, as there’s a lot of people that put in hard work to these events,” Espiritu said. “We’re just really trusting our school leaders, we’re just relying on the people that are in charge, they’ll inform us what to do, what the next steps are.”
On March 13, the County of Santa Clara County Public Health Department announced that all public and private schools in the county will be closed and quarantined effective from March 16 to April 3. San José Unified School District released an official statement following the press conference held on Friday.
“We have worked side-by-side with our partners at the Santa Clara County Office of Education and the County of Santa Clara Public Health Department. The County of Santa Clara Public Health Department has issued new orders to slow the spread of COVID-19 in our community, reduce the number of people infected, and protect those who are most vulnerable to severe illness. Those orders have resulted in the entire San José Unified School District being quarantined to protect our students, our families, our teachers, our staff, and our community.”
Although teenagers are not a high-risk group for COVID-19, students like Ken Isaka, 11, are worried about the potential for carrying the virus into their households.
“I’m a little bit worried, not exactly for my safety, but I don’t want to get coronavirus, because I’m scared that my dad might get infected,” said Isaka. “I want to make sure that he stays safe, because I know a lot of people that die and get affected heavily are older men.”
Another side effect of the school closures has been the unforeseen cancellations of many school-wide events such as drama performances, the annual Crab Feed and the Benefit Concert.
As of right now, there is no plan to outright cancel the concert according to music teacher Lara Levy, but the program would “take a hit financially,” if that were the case.
“We’re looking at options like livestreaming it, things where we just sell a reduced subscription price and figure out a way to do our raffle that way,” said Levy. “It (wouldn’t be) devastating, but it would not be ideal. We do have a couple fundraisers, but this is one of our biggest ones. Everyone is frustrated. I feel bad for all the parent volunteers that have done the decorations and gotten the raffle prizes. They’ve done countless hours of work and I really want that to be shown off.”
The spring musical “Newsies” will also be postponed with new show dates to be scheduled as the original dates fall within the time frame of the mandated closure.
Principal Herb Espiritu is following the guidance of the district which is making decisions based off of recommendations from the county, state and federal offices for health.
“We want to listen to those recommendations as they come and unfortunately sometimes we have to make decisions that are tough, as there’s a lot of people that put in hard work to these events,” Espiritu said. “We’re just really trusting our school leaders, we’re just relying on the people that are in charge, they’ll inform us what to do, what the next steps are.”