Southeast of Saline In-House Covid-19 Testing

Reagan Goetz, Reporter

Southeast of Saline (SES), has added in-school Covid-19 testing this year. They have a new policy that allows kids to have a better chance of staying in school when exposed to Covid-19. According to Mrs. Rogers, “It was decided to provide in school Covid-19 testing in an attempt to limit/decrease the days missed when in ‘quarantine’.” 

This was something that took a lot of planning. Mrs. Rogers and Mr. Stumpf had to check many boxes to allow this to be offered at SES. They created a policy for the testing. Mrs. Rogers said, “When a student is determined to be a ‘close contact’ of a ‘positive case’ in school, that student can remain in school, but must wear a mask at all times other than lunch when in school. These students also have daily testing during the quarantine. If he/she is not vaccinated or wearing a mask at the time of the contact, they must get tested or stay at home during the quarantine. If a student is in quarantine due to a ‘household exposure, the student stays at home in quarantine and when the initial 10 day quarantine is over, he/she may return to school for daily testing during the 2nd, 10 day quarantine, OR stay home for an additional 10 days.” 

There have been several students recently that have been sick because of Covid-19. Because of the testing that is offered at Southeast, many students that have been in close contact with someone who had the virus have been able to stay in school.

Many students have had to get tested at the school in order to not have to quarantine. Everyone has a different opinion about it. Brooke Johnson said, “I was a little irritated at first that I had to get tested every morning, but I understood why they wanted me to do that. They wanted me to get tested everyday for the people who got exposed. They don’t want to harm anyone else at the school. I also didn’t have to do it for that long.” 

People have said that, when you get tested for covid-19, it can be a very uncomfortable experience. They have to put the swab pretty far up your nose. According to Brooke, “The testing experience wasn’t that bad. They didn’t stick the swab that far in like I’ve heard. They just swabbed it and twirled it around a couple times.” 

If you are exposed to Covid-19, and you have the vaccine, you do not have to get tested every morning. If you aren’t vaccinated, you have to get tested every morning for a certain period of time. Brooke said, “I think that it is reasonable because they can’t really get it. They still make the vaccinated people wear masks in case anything happens. I think that if they were really being safe about the virus, they would make everyone get tested no matter what.” It doesn’t really make any sense for the school to have that rule. Whether you have the vaccine or not, you get exposed to Covid-19. In this situation, you should have to get tested. You can still get the virus when you have the vaccine. The vaccine doesn’t prevent you from getting it, it just lessens your symptoms. 

If students who don’t have the vaccine have to be tested everyday, the students who have the vaccine should also be tested. If we are really worried about the spread of the virus, that is what the policy should be. It isn’t really fair and it also doesn’t make sense. If a vaccinated person has the virus but doesn’t get tested because they “don’t have to”, they could spread it to other people and we would have a bigger chance of infecting more people throughout the school.