Wednesday, February 9, 2022
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2020 Redux: Omicron Triggers Deja Vu Avery Franks
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n Dec. 17, most Upper School students gathered in Rose Hall – one of the few places on campus where they were required to wear masks – for the annual Holiday Sing-Along. Students left for Winter Break under the assumption that the relaxed COVID-19 protocols would carry into the new year. On Jan. 2, amid a surge in omicron cases, Head of School Lee Hark sent families an email detailing new protocols and increased restrictions. Students were again required to wear masks indoors, assemblies became virtual and contact tracing shifted from individual emails to close contacts to daily grade-level reports of positive cases. “We remain committed to offering an on-campus learning experience, but if case numbers rise (either among our student or employee population), we will consider closing classrooms, grade levels or entire divisions as necessary to reduce the spread of infection,” Hark wrote in the email.
However, with omicron, while the risk of getting infected is much higher, the threat of getting really sick if you are vaccinated and boosted is much lower.” New contact tracing protocols allow a shortened seven-day isolation period for vaccinated people if they can produce a negative PCR test after the fifth day.
A New Normal More students and faculty tested positive in the first weeks of January than at any other point during the pandemic, forcing many to go online for days at a time.
Staying In Person While concern about students contracting COVID-19 is one of the factors that would cause Greenhill to revert to remote learning, administrators believe that a lack of teachers – due to them caring for a sick family member or being sick themselves – is the more pressing issue. Except for the first grade going remote for three days in January, the school has remained in-person since returning to campus after the break. “I think what we’ve discovered from last year is that remote learning is not the best and that we really want students to be in person as much as possible,” said Head of Upper School Trevor Worcester. “The thing that might trigger us to go to remote [learning] would be more a lack of faculty on campus to teach rather than the number of students online.” The omicron spike has set case numbers soaring across the nation and within the Greenhill community. University of California Davis School of Medicine epidemiologist Lorena Garcia says the omicron variant is much more transmissible than the delta variant due to a higher viral load. Omicron’s transmissibility translated into a surge in cases at Greenhill immediately following Winter Break. There were 48 cumulative COVID-19 cases during this school year before Dec. 17. By Jan. 31, that number had surged to 393.
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I felt very disconnected while I was online because it’s hard for a teacher to have to accommodate only one or two people. I would be fine with the school saying that people online are just silent learners but a lot of times it felt like the teacher would forget that they had students online and wouldn’t speak up or move the camera.”
“I hope that, in teaching online, I’ve become much more explicit about what the class is doing and why,” said Upper School English Department Chair Joel Garza. “80 minutes is a long time, and it’s even longer when you’re at home. I can imagine that a student online might feel very isolated during class when all they’re doing is sitting and listening.” Greenhill administrators say there are no plans to return to a hybrid model. The school expects that most students will attend class in person unless the student or someone in their household tests positive for COVID-19. “Remote learning is a limited tool that we’re using in a very limited way,” Hark said. “We’re fortunate that we have it, but unless something dramatic happens, we’re going stay in person. Individual families have come to me with significant circumstances that are unique to them, and we try to help them on a case-by-case basis, but we are not offering an online option for anyone that wants to stay home.” Administrators have told families and faculty that they expect the omicron wave in the United States and Dallas area to peak rapidly and then sharply decline, following trends in places such as South Africa. The school expects to be able to roll back protocols again in the coming weeks. “It’s tough to say when exactly we will begin loosening up again,” Worcester said. “What I’m reading more broadly is, because of the number of cases, there is an idea that omicron may help us reach this so-called herd immunity if another variant doesn’t quickly come into play. If we see that our numbers are down and everyone is returning from quarantine, we might be able to roll back things sooner than later.”
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I think what we’ve discovered from last year is that remote learning is not the best and that we really want students to be in person as much as possible. The thing that might trigger us to go to remote [learning] would be more a lack of faculty on campus to teach rather than the number of students online. “
The increased threat of a reversion to remote learning has raised concerns among students. Many students say they prefer to attend in-person classes because they find it difficult to stay engaged and interact with their peers while learning from home. “I really don’t think online school is an effective way to learn,” freshman Mayer Sidikaro said. “You’re asking someone to do school on the same device where they play video games and on the same device where they can text their friends and do pretty much whatever they want at home.” Because more than 90% of faculty are vaccinated, administrators feel that remaining in person is safer than it was during the early stages of the pandemic, when vaccines weren’t readily available. “This time a year and a half ago, our faculty felt like they were at risk and physically in danger by being in-person,” Hark said. “We continue to think that COVID still poses a risk to some members of our community, otherwise we wouldn’t wear masks or try to maintain social distance.
just silent learners, but a lot of times, it felt like the teacher would forget that they had students online and wouldn’t speak up or move the camera.” Reynolds says there was a lot of confusion about what her role in the classroom should’ve been while online because different teachers approached the situation in different ways. In some classes, she would be called on at random despite not being able to hear and follow along. In others, the teacher would simply turn the camera on and not address her for the rest of class.
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This time a year and a half ago, our faculty felt like they were at risk and physically in danger by being in-person. We continue to think that COVID still poses a risk to some members of our community, otherwise we wouldn’t wear masks or try to maintain social distance.“
Graphic by Emma Nguyen
Unlike the hybrid model used in the 2020-2021 school year, where remote students participated actively in class, quarantined students are given access to a camera-view that is supposed to function as “a window into the classroom.” Students are allowed to observe and follow along quietly, and teachers are not supposed to require participation from online students. “I felt very disconnected while I was online because it’s hard for a teacher to have to accommodate only one or two people,” said senior Erin Reynolds, who monitored classes remotely during a recent quarantine after the holiday break. “I would be fine with the school saying that people online are
While many in the Greenhill community feel that the omicron variant might finally be signaling the end of widespread restrictions caused by COVID-19, others believe the world will experience a cycle of hope and disappointment as new variants emerge for many years. “After Winter Break, I felt complete deja vu from last year, and it was so upsetting because things finally started to feel more normal between Thanksgiving and Winter Break,” Reynolds said. “I think maybe we were too quick to go to ‘masks-encouraged’ when it was prime time for people to be traveling and getting exposed. I think overall we were just too quick to let our guard down.”