By Charlotte Parent
The Tower
Grosse Pointe South HS<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1st Place
Division 2, News Writing<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Bridget Backer \u201922 sat in an awkward, heavily-sanitized examination chair at her local Urgent Care, her immediate reaction upon hearing her rapid COVID-19 test was positive was to cry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She was scared for how her body would handle COVID. She was upset for the people she had inadvertently exposed. Above all, though, she felt ashamed for exposing her friends and classmates, despite it not being her fault for being exposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Backer said she started following the GPPSS protocols for a positive test– which included beginning a 10-day quarantine– until her regular PCR test came back negative, which meant she was allowed to come back to school, no additional test required. She said she wasn\u2019t surprised that COVID cases had started appearing at South– she was more surprised with how early they had appeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was strange knowing that in just one week of being back in school, cases were already appearing,\u201d Backer said. \u201cI was kind of uneasy about it. It\u2019s scary to deal with the fact that you can\u2019t necessarily control if you get COVID from another student. It\u2019s terrifying to even think about how students are putting themselves and their family members at risk coming into school, when some people\u2019s lives are more at risk than others.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said the current precautions and protocols in place at South have been both good and bad to help mitigate the risk. The cohorts, for example, have been confusing, she said, but they do help with contact tracing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think (the effectiveness of the precautions) depends on how they\u2019re being used,\u201d Backer said. \u201cThe shields are great to enforce distancing, but many teachers– in- cluding in my own classes– don\u2019t require them. The hallway lines aren\u2019t super effective, as kids still bunch together. (Even with these) in place, I don\u2019t think in the slightest bit it\u2019s a good idea to enforce full face-to-face in March. Yes, vaccines are being distributed, but it\u2019s still going to be a long time until we can actually go back to our idea of normal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Current parent in the district Kelly Fordon, who has a senior at South, agreed with Backer on the issue of returning to face-to-face in March as proposed by the Grosse Pointe School Board, emphasizing the need for respectful discussions from all members of the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI know we are all coming at this from different angles, (and as a parent), I feel like this is our moment to model respectful dialogue for our kids,\u201d Fordon said. \u201cI feel like that begins with each person asking themselves a few questions: how can we move forward with these plans and do the least harm? What happens if my assessment of the COVID-19 risk turns out to be wrong? How many people will be harmed then? Why are others viewing this situation differently? What is happening in their lives that is driving their decision-making? If we keep in mind everyone\u2019s different viewpoints, we should consider what conclusions we can come to that will benefit the most people now and into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Backer said in general, her ex- perience with COVID and with the district\u2019s protocols and process was a little chaotic, due to how early it happened in hybrid learning. She said she urges students to contin- ue doing their best to follow the CDC guidelines and minimize the spread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor me, I just hope students will do their part in social distancing,\u201d Backer said. \u201cI know I can\u2019t control how–or if– students practice it, but I just hope to see masks worn correctly, no partying and safety from students and teachers, especially if they\u2019re traveling over the break. Please do your part– I want to be out of this pandemic as much as you all do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stories should be interpretive in nature, not straight news stories. The elements \u201cwhy\u201d and \u201chow\u201d should be examined through research, but the writer\u2019s opinions should not be expressed. An analysis covers issues and problems that relate to specific events of a news nature. Submit a PDF of the print page(s) on which the story was published or the URL to the story on an online news site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Charlotte ParentThe TowerGrosse Pointe South HS 1st PlaceDivision 2, News Writing As Bridget Backer \u201922 sat in an awkward, heavily-sanitized examination chair at her local Urgent Care, her immediate reaction upon hearing her rapid COVID-19 test was positive was to cry. She was scared for how her body would handle COVID. She was upset […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":5071,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[53,4,1],"tags":[176,21],"class_list":["post-5070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-newsanalysis","category-nw","category-uncategorized","tag-2020-21","tag-division2","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/NW-05_COVIDCasesandF2FReturn_Parent-Charlotte-Parent-e1633443262210.png?resize=600%2C400&ssl=1","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/NW-05_COVIDCasesandF2FReturn_Parent-Charlotte-Parent-e1633443262210.png?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1","author_info":{"display_name":"Jason Laplow","author_link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?author=11"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/NW-05_COVIDCasesandF2FReturn_Parent-Charlotte-Parent-e1633443262210.png?fit=1395%2C1737&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6K0n6-1jM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}