Almost every school day, varying amounts of students are called to the back of the auditorium. They’re asked if they were in close contact with an individual who tested positive for COVID-19–in which the answer is usually yes–then they’re sent home. In other words, they’re here today and gone tomorrow.

Most students who are quarantined can return to school after ten days if they don’t express any symptoms.

However, there are some students who have been quarantined more than once.

“I’ve been quarantined twice,” senior Gary Latta said.

On the other hand, some have only been quarantined once, but they tested positive for COVID-19.

“I was only quarantined once,” senior Sarah Yeates said, “when I got it – COVID.” According to Yeates, her family isolated themselves before students were being sent home.

A common disadvantage to being quarantined is having to make up classwork on time.

“The worst part [of quarantine],” junior Tony Waterfall said, “was probably just the work, having to try to get caught up, figure out what homework I needed to do and stuff.”

Another hindrance that students may face while being isolated is pressure. According to Latta, he had “stress” during quarantine.

Despite the difficulties, there are positives to quarantine. Waterfall said he enjoyed being able to eat and wake up whenever he wanted. And for Yeates, she said she had many advantages.

“I liked the time,” Yeates said, “I liked getting other house projects [done] that I had worked on previously, and just vacation.”

Latta said one advantage he had was that his mom was still able to pick up lunch from fast-food restaurants.

Some students believe the regulations for quarantine are unfair or flawed.

“I think it’s kind of useless,” Yeates said, “because people are getting quarantined and I would say it’s not really doing much, and they’re [the school officials] just sending them [the students] back over and over again.”

Latta had a similar opinion to Yeates.

“They’re [the regulations are] kind of flawed in a way,” Latta said. “Because say a kid comes back from quarantine and the next thing he has to quarantine again. That kind of sucks.”

Waterfall had a differing viewpoint. He believed that quarantine is “a good safety precaution,” and that being within six feet of someone is “reasonable.”

Regardless of the regulations’ fairness, everyone must remain hopeful that school can return to normal in the near future.