Good luck getting NJ high school kids to quarantine (Opinion)

Well, it’s official (as official as the governor stating it, that is). They’re calling this the second wave of the virus.

That means it’s a period of time where new COVID-19 cases are growing, rather than decreasing. Of course, most people with common sense understand that that means that testing is more widely available and that more people are actually taking advantage of it. But if you wanna freak out and worry, you could take the rising numbers to mean that we are in more of a crisis situation than we were before.

And that’s exactly what Gov. Phil Murphy and many other government officials want you to think. In light of that, rules have been tightening. And a high school in Westfield is asking kids to quarantine since seven students have recently tested positive, bringing the total to a whopping 13 cases.

Forget about the fact that high school kids don’t die of coronavirus or even get seriously ill, 13 kids is not even a scary amount. Nevertheless, the school is calling for quarantine and kids just aren’t listening (Ironically, the seven new cases are in kids who have had all remote instruction and haven’t even been inside the school). But still the fear mongering continues.

The most ridiculous part of the quarantine is of the student athletes at the high school who are banned from participating in their sports. School administrators found out that these kids are, in fact, engaging in other group activities outside of school. That makes the school leaders edgy. They’re begging these athletes to refrain from participating in activities outside of school hours. How do they legitimately think they’re going to get active, athletic kids to just sit home when they’re banned from expending the energy that they normally do in their sports activities? And how do they think they’re going to be able to convince kids to follow their rules outside of school?

“If you are quarantining, there should be NO social interaction,” Westfield High School Athletic Director Sandra Mamary told families, according to an article on tapinto.com. “You should be restricted to an area of your house that is away from others in your family. Do not eat meals with your family and disinfect all areas that must be shared, such as a bathroom.”

COVID-19 or not, It’s almost comical that a school athletic director thinks she can tell students how to behave in their own homes. And who in their right mind would think they’d listen?