TUSD announces later opening date, students express concern

Across the country, schools have been considering re-opening their campuses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last Monday, a student at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina died due to COVID-19 complications. Since Chad Dorrill’s death, many students on campus have been expressing their concerns with continuing their activities on campus.

Dorrill was a 19-year-old basketball player who lived off-campus and was taking all of his classes online.

Dorrill decided to go back home to Wallburg, North Carolina in early September in order to visit his family. He tested positive while in Wallburg, and self-isolated for two weeks before returning to Boone. Dorrill called his family the day after returning to Boone, saying that he could not remember how he got back to Boone.

Three weeks after testing positive, Dorrill died at Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem.

It was announced yesterday that the Tucson Unified School District has delayed their school reopening to mid-November, or even later than that. The decision came after students and staff contacted district officials and expressed their concerns about the reopening, which was originally scheduled for October 19.

Last week, the C.D.C. reported that cases from people ages 18 to 22 rose 55 percent from early August to early September, as college campuses were reopening.

It’s important to note that TUSD is the biggest school district in Tucson, with about 42,000 students and thousands of staff. Reopening TUSD would mean exposing thousands of students, staff, and their families to a potentially deadly virus.

Julia Romo, a senior at Pueblo High School, expressed her concerns about TUSD’s reopening, having sent the district a letter about how dangerous it could be for a significant portion of Tucson’s population. “I don’t care about not being able to hang out with my friends, safety is the most important thing right now.” Romo said. In her letter to the district, Romo mentioned that it’s not just students and staff who are going to be put in danger, but their families as well. “There are also students who, like in my case, live with their grandparents who have pre-existing conditions that can make the situation worse. We all deserve to be listened to and you should ask for the opinions of teachers because they don’t have an option when it comes to whatever decision you make.”

Unfortunately, TUSD has been debating about the option to reopen schools because they are funded on a per-pupil basis. The district is afraid that parents may decide to move their students to a neighboring district or charter school who are offering in-person classes.