As we have learned from what has happened in the life of our President, White House staff and others that are now testing positive for COVID 19, the contagion of this pandemic is still pervasive and aggressive. It is frightening to see how this can spread in the lives of some of our leadership in our nation’s capital, a place that we might assume has more protection than most places.
I wish the President and the First Lady a speedy and complete recovery. No one wants to be sick from COVID 19 and our compassion and best wishes go to President Trump and his family.
One of the realities of operating schools and counseling programs is the many requirements placed on us from our state and public health authorities. These regulations are intense, comprehensive and have impact to all we are doing at Lakeside and to schools all over the nation.
It has caused much sanitization work for buildings and vehicles, all kinds of protective procedures in how we move through our buildings, how we teach, how we provide counseling and behavior management, how we monitor our staff and students, how we test and how we respond to anyone who has been exposed. The expectations on schools are both intense and all-encompassing.
The result of all of these precautions is that our risk for any out break has been minimized. We have been able to have students have life interaction in our programs. We have also offered students who have potentially been exposed or who are nervous about coming to school to virtually maintain their school schedules and counseling sessions. This process is extremely stressful and anxiety-provoking for both our staff and students. However, this is the price of safety due to this virus.
If we are to win this war against COVID 19 these precautions are essential. We cannot afford to relax our requirements and protocols. I think it is exhausting to keep this up while we are waiting for a vaccine and effective therapeutics. If we want to continue to keep our businesses and schools open we all need to be vigilant about protecting each other.
We also need our leaders to be consistent with COVID 19 best practices. One difficult reality is that we still know very little about the nuances of this pandemic. What we do know is that this virus is virulent and relentless. All of us who are leading our organizations must set the tone, use good judgement and model what scientists have discovered. If these practices and protocols are mandated for our schools, we must also practice them in our communities and public gatherings as well.
Gerry Vassar
President/CEO
