COVID UNITY
Community members who recovered from COVID-19 share their experiences with the virus and what they have learned from it. BY FAREEHA AHMAD & HELEN ZHANG PHOTOS BY MADDY SMITH & COURTESY OF JESSICA MEHEGAN DESIGN BY AMY LIAO
SARA ALAYA ‘22
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FEATURE NOV. 20, 2020
JESSICA MEHEGAN, SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHER
E
ven in the midst of a pandemic, the local effects of COVID-19 may seem distant to some. According to the district’s COVID-19 Dashboard, a total of 393 students and 96 staff members currently have or have had presumed or confirmed positive cases throughout the school year as of press time Nov. 9. The school is taking precautions to ensure the safety of its students and to repress the growth of these numbers, including offering both hybrid and online schooling models. In order to keep the school itself safe, students enrolled in the hybrid model alternate days at West so that there are less than 400 students in the building at once. Other precautionary measures include teachers sanitizing desks in between class periods, tape markings encouraging individuals walking in different directions to stay on opposite sides of the hallways and stopping the use of shared items such as computers and keypads. If a student or staff member contracts COVID-19, they are required to quarantine themselves for a minimum of two weeks. According to Chelsey Lenz, a nurse at West, students who attend school in person and display COVID-19 symptoms are required to provide a picture of a negative test result proving they don’t have the virus. If they don’t wish to get tested, they are required to self-isolate at home. Nurses call in every day to check on students who are marked absent due to illness, including those enrolled in the online learning program. Students, including those who are on the hybrid plan, are still required to go to Zoom meetings when they are at home as long as they are well enough to attend. “We do recommend that students be [in] communication with their teachers about how they are feeling and their participation throughout [class] so that accommodations can be made if needed,” Lenz said. Lenz also works closely with the Johnson County Public Health Department in order to contact trace the virus. In other words, she identifies students who have been exposed through close contact with those who tested positive for COVID-19. To do this, Lenz calls the families of students who have the virus and identifies who they have been in contact with by looking at seating charts, busing and extracurricular activities. She then notifies students who have been exposed and tells them to stay home. While these precautions can help mitigate the spread of the virus, students can still contract it outside of school. Twins Sara and Yusef Alaya ’22 contracted the virus over the summer. Sara works a part-time job and believes she became unwell while working shifts there. Because of their close contact with each other, Yusef contracted the virus from Sara. “I was super, super surprised. I didn’t expect it at all because it was out of nowhere,” Sara said. “I just woke up one day [and] had a fever.” “It was pretty surprising, but I felt weird. It
