How COVID has impacted CATS
By Luis N., Eric M., and Cristian V.
At least 120 students have tested positive for COVID-19 since students returned to school in early January and now, according to CATS administrators. There are more than 500 students in the school.
Mr. Antonio Roque, the assistant principal, said that this has caused many students to miss school.
Mr. Roque said that some of the absences are due to COVID-19, but not all of the absences are due to COVID. “There are many who are missing because they are testing positive and have to go into quarantine.”
He commented that it is possible that there is someone in the house who is positive and that the student has been exposed to the virus.
“There is also a group of parents who are concerned about omicron infections, because the infections are bigger and they are afraid to send their children to school,” explained Mr. Roque.
CATS secretary, Ms. Silvia Coronado, said “I feel stressed because there are many parents who call the school asking when their children can return to school and how to do it or questions they have about attendance.”
But that is not all. “And from there is the group that is taking advantage of the situation and doesn’t come,” Mr. Roque said. “That’s where we’re having the problem. But how do we know? How do I know if the student is legitimately infected or if the mother or father has concerns about sending it. It’s hard to know.”
Ninth graders have the best attendance with 40.0% of students attending regularly, according to the data, but 10th graders have the worst attendance with only 26.5% of students attending regularly.
The new history teacher, Ms. Mariana Reinartz, said that she got sick with COVID-19 even though she was vaccinated but had not gotten the third dose of the booster shot. “As a teacher, I feel that students should not be worried when they are sick.”
“As it happened to me, I did see that it can be very serious, it hit me hard. And it was not possible to do work on the internet and also be sick.”
She went on to say that, “if students can know that teachers are not going to penalize them for being absent, and if students can do their best to catch up when they come back from being sick, then we can all end this year well, with everyone healthy.”
There are several measures administrators are taking.
“Teachers are going to talk to students to reinforce the importance of coming to school,” he said. “Another thing is that Tuesday is going to be the 100th day of school. We are going to do an activity in the morning. And we’ll talk about the importance of attendance.”
He also said that they are going to start talking and visiting the houses of the students who are not coming.
“One thing that is hurting us is that we don’t have an attendance counselor. But he said they’re going to get a person within two weeks and they’re also going to get an extra academic advisor.
“We are not going to be able to change this from one day to the next,” said Mr. Roque.
