Waverly High School students, parents adjusting to COVID-19 rules

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Students and parents are working through a variety of new safety rules at Waverly High School connected to the coronavirus pandemic.  

Superintendent Kelly Blake outlined health and safety rules in an email to parents earlier this school year. Those rules include wearing a mask at all times, social distancing (at least 3 feet), restricted student movement seating charts (for case tracking), and prohibition of visitors. Blake said parents will be called if a student has been in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. 

As of Sept. 29, there were four active cases of COVID-19 in Waverly High School.  

Student Mckenna Bensinger said she feels staff and teachers are doing their best to keep students safe, but some students don’t take the virus seriously. She said being vaccinated makes her feel safer at school, but she wishes other students to take the pandemic as seriously as she does.

“There are people that just don’t care and just don’t wear their mask over their nose,” she said. 

She said the school moved the homecoming dance outside instead of inside the gym, and after-school activities such as sports games and club meetings require school-mandated mask-wearing and social distancing. 

Melissa Rodriguez, whose daughter attends Waverly High School, discusses COVID-19 safety protocols at the school.

Student Isabella Rodriguez said the high school can do better by keeping students more socially distanced.

“In most classrooms, there are 25 to 30 people in a small room,” she said “They could help by making sure everyone is vaccinated or keep the kids that are vaccinated away from the unvaccinated.”

 In class, Rodriguez said she wants more face-to-face interaction with teachers.

“Mostly we get to do our own thing on Google Classroom,” she said. “I have learned basically how to teach myself.”

Her mother, Melissa Rodriguez said some parents may not like the mandated rules, but the school is doing the right thing by keeping kids safe.  

“There is a lot of communication with the district, which is good,” Rodriguez said. “They are always informing us and the kids about what they are hearing, what they are seeing, what they are doing.”

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