LANSING, Mich. (WLNS)– Some students learning online at Lansing Catholic High School are concerned about coming back in person to class after the school has asked students to come back in person if they can.
Lansing Catholic students anonymously wrote a letter expressing that the school is not being transparent, forcing students to go back and has “continuously tried to downplay the seriousness of the virus.”
6 News spoke with one of those students who said, “I want to go back to school but I don’t think it’s smart to go back right now,” after mentioning the high rate of daily COVID-19 cases.
President of Lansing Catholic, Dominic Iocco, says some students have been abusing being able to stay home to learn.
“We said you have to have a reason to be online because quiet frankly we had one case where we had a student in Arizona complaining that he had to be on a zoom call at 830 in the morning, online learning is not there for you to travel out of state,” said Iocco.
In an email sent from the school to families, it mentioned three options for students to be able to stay online:
| – A current health plan on file at Lansing Catholic documenting the student’s at risk condition; – A note from the student’s doctor indicating that the student is at high risk of contracting COVID-19 and/or suffering severe complications from the virus; and/or – A note signed by the member of the household that indicates s/he is at high risk for the virus. |
“A medical note could be anxiety like right? That’s a legit medically concern, that if you have anxiety about being back in school, perfectly valid,” said Iocco.
Iocco said there are nearly 370 students learning in person and 60 learning online. He said the school is doing everything it can to make sure everyone is staying safe.
Thermal cameras have even been installed in two different hallways in the school.
“It sends an alert to the 99.5 or whatever we have it set too and alerts us ‘hey you need to go double check this students or that it was just a misreading,” Iocco said.
He also added that since there is a camera, it will snap a picture of the person whose temperature is high, so school officials can see who might have a fever.
There have been 2 students with confirmed cases of Covid-19 at Lansing Catholic this school year.
