Different Variant, Different Schools, Different Responses

The combination of holiday traveling, free time to hang out after finals and a highly contagious variant all caused COVID-19 cases to surge in the Los Angeles County area causing different schools to respond in different ways.

On Dec. 28, the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District (PVPUSD) considered three possible outcomes: a normal return to school, a postponement of school or completely online school. Weighing all the costs and benefits, PVPUSD returned to in-person learning, but with some added measures. Masks are required at all times, a negative PCR test was recommended before returning to school, Winter Formal was moved to Feb. 26 and Lip Dub postponed until the mask mandate lifts. According to Superintendent Alex Cherniss’ “Putting Kids First” email on Jan. 7, the district is experiencing “little to no transmission at school” and “over 90% of students have attended school daily.”

Some students at PVHS, however, have contradicted Cherniss’ claims with personal experiences at school.

“Half of my English class was absent,” senior Coral Hugoboom said. “I don’t know if they tested positive [for COVID-19] or if they just didn’t feel safe coming back to school.” 

On Jan. 14, PVPUSD introduced voluntary K-12 teacher office hours. Each week up until Feb. 11, teachers can host hour-long paid virtual meetings to help students catch up on missed class time.

Public schools in LA County had similar responses to PVPUSD. South Torrance High School asked for a negative COVID-19 test before returning and enforcing mask requirements.

 “My whole friend group and I tested positive that first week back,” SHS junior Teague Schnittger said. “I fell behind in school. Some teachers posted their lessons online but I missed a lot of the new material.”

Private schools took the recent outbreak in a different direction. Chadwick immediately went to online learning for the first week back from winter break. COVID-19 tests were administered on campus, requiring every student to show a negative result before returning to campus. If a student tested positive, they’d Zoom into class. They required all students to wear surgical-grade or better masks instead of cloth.

 “Chadwick did a great job being proactive, especially in having everyone online the first week,” Chadwick senior Allen Kotoyantz said. 

Over the next two weeks, PVHS students started to re-fill the classroom as COVID cases steadily declined. Per Dr. Cherniss, 95% of students were recorded in-person on Jan. 27. 

Though responses differed, all schools prioritized keeping students safe while emphasizing high quality education.