After a month of in-person learning, Aragon’s vigilance against COVID-19 has been effective so far. The combination of vaccination, ventilation and masking has helped Aragon avoid outbreaks and school closures.
Freshman Sabeeha Sheikh was vaccinated at a clinic at San Mateo High School.
“My dad heard about [the clinic] from one of my brother’s friends,” Sheikh said. “It was pretty crowded, but it wasn’t super crowded so I didn’t feel unsafe.”
While the San Mateo Union High School District has allocated substantial time and resources into reaching out to unvaccinated students in the District, SMUHSD Superintendent Kevin Skelly spoke about the amount of Aragon students and staff who are already vaccinated at the Sept. 9 Board meeting.
“[At Aragon], 89% of students … and 98% of staff are vaccinated [according to self reported data],” Skelly said.
As of Sept. 24, there are 42 confirmed COVID-19 cases district-wide and four at Aragon. The confirmed infection rate at Aragon is approximately 0.2%, while the district’s total rate is 0.4%, according to data from the District’s COVID-19 dashboard.
“We have the resources to test everyone regularly”
The current preventive systems in place at Aragon follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines.
“We are fortunate that the vast majority of our indoor spaces in our district are not only relatively modern, but also of relatively high echelon in terms of capacity and safety,” said Craig Childress, president of the Teacher’s Association.
While Aragon meets ventilation requirements, contact tracing has been ineffective. Usually, students and faculty are alerted of cases up to a week after the student tests positive for COVID-19.
“There has to be some delay because first you have to take care of medical privacy in terms of HIPAA, so the close contacts have to be contacted first,” Childress said. “Then the larger community is contacted, but I believe this would be more efficient with improved staffing and protocols.”
While the District mandates students to keep their masks on in class, some students feel that teachers have become too relaxed with masking policies.
“They let you drink water in class, and I feel like that’s just gross,” Sheikh said.
On Aug. 23, Gov. Gavin Newsom passed a weekly testing requirement for unvaccinated teachers and staff.
Childress advocates for testing beyond that, and specifically for more staffing and testing to catch COVID-19 cases earlier on.
“We can offer testing to any student or employee regardless of vaccination status,” Childress said. “We have the resources to test everyone regularly. We could conduct weekly pool testing.”
Childress believes weekly pool testing for all students and staff would result in more effective contact tracing. However, Skelly disagrees.
“More testing isn’t gonna solve some of the problems in terms of notification, because you know [there are] just a lot of steps to it,” Skelly said.
“They really should [mandate vaccines], because everyone’s so close together at lunch and outside of school”
Parents and staff who advocated for a districtwide vaccine mandate for all students referenced following in the footsteps of the Los Angeles Unified School District, which has mandated the vaccine for students 12-years-old and older.
“We’re following the state, and waiting until it’s fully approved for 14 and 15-year-olds by the Food and Drug Administration,” Skelly said.
The Board at the Sept. 23 meeting discussed a renewed proposal to mandate vaccination for extracurriculars. The proposed policy states that “Students who participate in any extracurricular activity … must: (1) be fully vaccinated; or (2) submit weekly negative COVID test results … COVID tests must take place within 48 hours (ideally 24 hours) of a contest or in-person activity.”
However, there were a myriad of concerns, such as the varied impact due to variations in vaccination rates by race and student’s mental health, privacy and individual liberty.
Like many who spoke during public comment time at the Sept. 9 and 23 board meetings, freshman Sofia Laura doesn’t feel a mandate is necessary.
“I am vaccinated for sports,” Laura said. “But if I wasn’t playing sports, I wouldn’t be vaccinated for health reasons. I don’t think a vaccine should be mandated for health or personal reasons.”
Sheikh feels differently and thinks that current policies are too relaxed.
“They really should [mandate vaccines], because everyone’s so close together at lunch and outside of school,” Sheikh said. “It really matters during sports like water polo, where you can’t wear a mask.”
Board Vice President, Peter Hanley, agrees that vaccines need to be mandated as soon as possible.
“If I had my preference, we wouldn’t wait,” said Hanley.
The Board eventually voted to table the policy for further discussion at a later meeting.
