Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
The college was unprepared but the student sounds clueless and whiny.
This is the risk every single student is taking when they move into a dorm or apartment right now. They might find themselves far away from home, gravely ill, and alone in a circumstance outside of their control.
Everyone has the choice, but the students want that first picture. They want the decorated dorm. They want new friends. They don’t want to miss out. Parents want them to be happy, so they pack the car and move them in.
I don’t know if people are blissfully unaware, in complete denial, or just plain dumb, but the situation in this article is already happening to thousandS of college students at this very moment, and will happen to tens of thousands more.
And yet today, they are still packing the cars, convinced that their college has a safer plan.
And this poor girl, who handled it better than I would have as an 18-year-old, may have exposed dozens of people to the virus, including many beyond the university community. When she decided she couldn't stay in the quarantine housing and couldn't go back home, she took a bus and checked in to a hotel. (I understand that she was doing the best she could.). Who knows who else was on the bus or in the hotel, and interacted with her in either place. This is why the dummies who say "college kids will be fine if the get it" just don't understand: when college students get it, they will almost certainly spread it to people who aren't college students, and who aren't even part of the college community. This is how you get rising levels of community spread.
So irresponsible -- not on her part, but on the part of the university for opening up without an adequate plan.
NP. +1 to PP just above. So many wrong steps:
--Clearly there was no instruction for every student to arrive with a pre-packed "go bag" to grab for a move to quarantine. So the girl has to pack stuff frantically.
--The RA should have had plenty of training and should have known exactly the steps to take with a positive student. But didn't, so clearly the college never trained the RAs.
--The college lacked designated health services staff to turn up at the girl's dorm and escort her to the campus quarantine room. (My DC's college does this.)
--The college had not even adequately cleaned the quarantine rooms. If the mattress was gritty with dust as described that's not acceptable.
--The parents appear not to have talked to the girl before she left for college about a family plan in case of a positive test at school. The girl didn't know NOT to get on a bus and expose many strangers to her very active case of symptoms? I do think she was feverish and not thinking straight so there's less blame on her for her poor choice at that point. But she could so easily have collapsed while on a multi-hour bus ride and ended up in a hospital who knows where. I can only hope someone thought to contact health authorities so those in the bus and working at that hotel etc. will get tested and quarantine. Wow.
--At a smaller college it's likely she might have been stopped from coming home because someone would have known where she was at all times.
The college let her go HOURS after the positive result, sitting in her room with her roommate there. Ridiculous. There are posts on other threads mocking the ideas of "go bags" and (decent) quarantine rooms on campuses. This incident shows why those things are needed, as is extensive training for RAs and real oversight of students who test positive.