Covid Safety—Is Rowland Hall Doing Enough?

Have you ever wondered if other schools are taking the same precautions as we are? Covid-19 has impacted many people across the globe and has caused schools in the United States to take major precautions in order to stay open. Rowland Hall was one of the schools that decided to reopen. However, the majority of schools in Salt Lake County decided not to reopen for a couple of months based on the large number of cases they saw. Here at Rowland Hall, we are able to see what precautions the school is taking first-hand, but we have little knowledge of the choices other institutions are making. I interviewed three people to see what safety measures their schools are taking during Covid: two from California—one teacher from Harvard Westlake and one student from Northwood High School—and one student from New Dorp High School in New York. This article will compare and contrast the three schools’ Covid-related practices.

Regarding the precautions being taken at his school, Nihar Abhyankar, a sophomore at Northwood High School, stated that his school is doing a hybrid learning system. However, unlike Rowland Hall, they have “plastic shields around desks and that’s about it,” in addition to masks. Both Karen Polen from Harvard Westlake and Jadyn Post from New Dorp High School are entirely online, but Harvard Westlake is preparing for the return of the student body sometime in February. Karen Polen, a dean and history teacher at Harvard Westlake, explained, “we have large tents set up outside to be able to potentially have some classes outside or have more outdoor spaces for students to meet.” She went on to explain the other precautions Harvard Westlake is moving towards and stated that “we have upgraded our air filters in all of our buildings, maximum capacity has been limited to 1/3 of normal capacity, we have stickers on the floor marking 6’ distance, more hand sanitizing stations set up, drinking faucets turned off.” Most of these precautions are similar to Rowland Hall’s, including the air filtration system, the 6’ markings, and the sanitizing stations; however, our classrooms are at half capacity rather than at one-third capacity. Rowland Hall’s precautions compared to those of these two schools are generally the same. Both Rowland Hall and Harvard Westlake have air filtration systems and other precautions listed above, whereas Northwood solely has shielded desks.

The next round of questions related more to the teachers and zoom classes. In our school, we acquired Owl cameras, which should show a 360-degree view of the class, making it easier for online students to stay engaged. However, Rowland Hall students don’t see the cameras as extremely useful: “they were good in theory, but they take half the class to set up,” states Ruchi Agarwal, a sophomore. While these cams were a great idea, they might not have been the best investment, as they cost $999 each, which could have instead been used for higher quality air filters or even desk shields like at Northwood. As for the classes, in every school I looked at, the students say that lessons are generally the same, and no teacher really had to change their plan. However, history teacher Karen Polen from Harvard Westlake disagrees; she says she has been “trying to take advantage of the format—using the chat feature for participation and polls and breakout rooms for discussions.” This is fairly similar to Rowland Hall’s zoom experience, as junior Sara Bakhsheshy explains: “I really appreciate my teachers’ communication with me and the ability to connect with them through zoom. They also do a great job organizing different assignments and using the zoom features, so I never feel behind.” As for New Dorp and Northwood, both of the interviewees explain that nothing really changed during Covid, other than online classes and extra precautions of course.

As far as safety and zoom go, Rowland Hall ranks fairly high among the other schools as we have taken precautions the others haven’t, such as the air filters. Since Rowland Hall is doing a hybrid system, we have not had many cases and are still open, unlike New Dorp High School, which had to close in late October. Here at Rowland Hall, there are potentially more advancements that could increase safety, but so far, most students feel like Rowland Hall has done a good job.