There is no doubt that Covid-19 is the biggest news story of 2020. Laramie County School District 1’s biggest job over the summer of 2020 was getting students back in school. The implemented precautions are used to slow and prevent the spread of Covid.  

According to the CDC, the disease is easily spread from person to person. They suggest washing your hands often, avoiding close contact with people, covering your mouth and nose with a mask, covering coughs and sneezes, cleaning and disinfecting often.  

“Right now we’re in Tier 1, which is everybody is in school the entire day,” Said Mirich, East High principal. “We would go to Tier 2, which would look a bit different, and then there’s also a Tier 3 depending on the situation with where we’re at district–wide.” 

 The school district placed temperature scanners at common entrances to help monitor for fevers. Students are also required to spray their hands with hand sanitizer when entering.  

 “We have caught students with higher temperatures and then after they go home, we monitor them a while,” Mr. Mirich explained, in an interview in mid-October. “About 4- 5 kids have been sent home due to having high temperatures.”  

The temperature scanners are only a small, but important, part to how the school district is monitoring the health of students. Another implemented precaution is the mandatory QR code tests that students must take during their first period or in the offices when they come in late.  

“We’ve gone around and talked to every student if they’ve marked yes on anything on the code, and depending on the situation, we send them to the nurses office, and the nurse will send them home.”  

One of the biggest hurdles of dealing with Covid-19 is the unknown. National health policies, county health requirements, and school district guidelines change as we learn more about the virus. However, these precautions could help prevent the spread of Covid and is necessary to keeping everyone safe. 

“There’s no specific guidelines for this is how far we’ll go and then we’re going to look at going to tier 2,” explained Mirich. “That’s just going to be decided by the district administration across the entire district with all the schools.”