March 31, 2020
Novel coronavirus.
COVID-19.
Three weeks ago today,
exactly two days after returning to campus at the end of Spring Break, Jakob
left Saint John’s University with the intention of returning on March 27. Clearing
the campus before COVID-19 could have any effect on the students or staff was a
safety and pre-emptive measure. It was supposed to be short-lived. The college
has since officially closed for the semester and all learning will take place
remotely. The next time Jakob sets foot on that campus it will be to pack up
the remainder of his things and officially move back home for the summer. We
still have not heard from SJU regarding the move-out process.
On Friday, March 6, 2020
at 4:30PM, exactly one hour after classes let out for spring break, the head of
school at Worcester Academy sent out an email warning students and staff that
spring break would likely be extended due to the novel coronavirus. It was
extended just a few days later, and before spring break was over, the school
would send home all international students that had remained on campus. They
would officially move to distance learning for the foreseeable future.
On Friday, March 13,
2020, the Tantasqua/Union 61 school district followed suit with other
communities in Massachusetts and closed their doors to all students, enforcing
an academic stay-at-home that they hoped would last for two weeks. Under the
direction of the Governor, Charlie Baker, all public and private Massachusetts
elementary and secondary education schools are currently closed until May 4,
2020.
There is no one on this
planet that has ever experienced the likes of what we are all going through
right now. This has never happened. There has never been a world-wide
quarantine that kept businesses closed, schools closed, and people shuttered
indoors for this length of time. Communities have braced again weather, states
have shut down highways because of natural disasters, countries have pulled
together and mourned together after a terrorist attack. The world has never
been united as one front to confront anything.
COVID-19, mandatory and recommended quarantines and social distancing will change the way we look at education, health care, communication, government intervention, stock-piling, hoarding, and interacting socially for a very long time. Possibly forever.
9/11 changed the way we travel, especially on an aircraft. It changed our perceptions of what was safe and who to trust. It challenged our views of racial profiling. On that horrible day in American history, 2,977 people died as the result of four terrorist attacks led by al-Qaeda. More than 25,000 people were injured. Can anyone imagine life going back to full-size shampoo and conditioner bottles being allowed in a carry-on bag?
In 1982 six adults and one twelve year old child were killed in the city of Chicago, IL. They all died of poisoning after taking Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide. The culprit was never found. Today, all over-the-counter medications come with tamper-resistant seals, labels, caps and boxes. Even toothpaste, many hair products and body sprays have protective seals.
Adam Walsh went missing from a Sears in Hollywood, FL in 1981. Adam’s severed head was found two weeks later. Adam became the face of violated children and his father, John Walsh, became the face of child endangerment intervention. Adam’s parents lobbied for the enacted Missing Children’s Act of 1982. In 1988 John Walsh began hosting “America’s Most Wanted.” In 1994 big box retailers implemented “Code Adam” to mobilize store clerks when a child was reported missing within their property. George W. Bush signed The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. All because one little boy was abducted and murdered and his parents refused to believe that should be the end of their son’s legacy.
So in the days, weeks, and months to come, we have no reason to believe that what we are experiencing right now with social distancing, online education for all children from pre-school through college, and the inability to buy toilet paper, paper towels and disinfecting wipes from the largest online retailer in the world because those items are consistently “Out of Stock,” that this way of life will be short-lived or forgotten. This way of living right now will impact us for weeks, months and years to come after the “all clear” bell has been rung. Exactly how far reaching those changes will affect us remains to be seen.