Hundreds attend discussion of GF school’s Covid policies

By Mark Frost & Zander Frost, Chronicle Editor & Staff Writer

Glens Falls School Superintendent Paul Jenkins met with the public — more than 200 people attended — Thursday evening, Nov. 4, in the auditorium to discuss the school’s ongoing Covid response.

Some implored the school to ease restrictions and mask requirements.

“People understand the risks which are objectively low,” one parent said. “They, we, our kids, are ready to accept some risk and get on with life.”

“[Students] want to experience the same rites of passage that every other generation experienced. And we, their parents, we want them to as well. And so do their grandparents, who are the ones that greatest risk.”

Mr. Jenkins said many policies are out of the school’s control. The mask mandate, for example, is a state edict.

He said there “may have been a perception was that we’re going way above and beyond what the Department of Health guidelines are — when actually we’re following the guidelines.”

Mr. Jenkins said the school has made significant progress this year.

“Right now all of our students are back in school full time. Last year, obviously we weren’t. We were doing a hybrid model,” he said.

“Every one of our fall sports ran. We have over 360 students, middle school and high school participating in athletics,” he added.

He said the school is dealing with a mixed bag of vaccination and Covid rates.

“Out of our entire student body, about 30% of our students are vaccinated,” he said, noting that elementary students haven’t had the option yet.

“At the high school level, we have about 65% of our students vaccinated. At the middle school level, it’s 53%.”

“You mentioned people want to take risks. That’s not something that we generally do in schools. We’re not in a position to just say we’re going to risk it and see how it goes. We’re going to go carefully and slowly,” Mr. Jenkins said.

“So far this year, we’ve had 70 positive student cases as of September 1, and nine staff members. We’ve had 41 school days [this fall], and so far, we’ve only had 10 days with no new positive cases. So we’re dealing with this on a daily basis.”

Mr. Jenkins mentioned the “test to stay” pilot program in South Glens Falls that allows students to go to school even after exposure to someone with Covid, if they get a negative rapid test each morning before school. They’re still unable to participate in extracurricular and must quarantine at home, though.

Mr. Jenkins said Saratoga County is authorized for the “test to stay” pilot, but Warren County is not.

He also said, “There are some schools that are mandating vaccinations for their student athletes…We didn’t go that far.”

“We’ve done 1,200 rapid tests on our student athletes, and we’ve had 5 positives.”

One parent said, “Glens Falls had swimming listed as a high risk sport. New York State does not list it as a high risk sport. In fact, it’s a low risk, and only relays are considered a moderate risk.”

Mr. Jenkins said that was for two reason, “one, it’s inside… but the other piece of the swimming is they do have to take their masks off.

“But they are in water,” the parent replied, to audience laughter.

“Yeah, they do, but they also get out of the water, and they have their masks off,” Mr. Jenkins said. He also referenced swimmers sharing locker room space.

“The only difference for us is we are testing those students. And the whole point of the testing is we want to make sure our students are safe,” he said.

He said if a child has to be tested for a sport and a parent does not consent, they cannot participate.

Another parent said, “Have you ever questioned the legality of some of the mandates?…I’m just playing devil’s advocate. There hasn’t been enough of that from our leaders. And I think that’s why parents are frustrated. I have been publicly shamed. I got vaccinated, I didn’t personally feel like I needed to get vaccinated. But I did because I gave into some shaming, and it’s sickening,” he said.

Michael Borgos, who presided over and organized the meeting, said, “Speaking for myself, you’re preaching to the choir. This is the exercise of good government…This is how we start to effectuate positive change, sending the message through our representatives.”

Parent: ‘We are suffocating our kids’

Parent Michelle Stearns, who said she is a licensed mental health counselor, told Superintendent Paul Jenkins, “We are suffocating our children, literally and figuratively. It’s so crucial that we make change and educate our kids in the least restrictive environment…Covid is not going away. We need to learn to live with it.”

Mr. Jenkins said the school has no control over the mask mandate — that it’s a state edict indoors. “Anyone that walks into our building, any student and staff member is required to wear a mask all the time inside.”

Students’ mental health

During Thursday’s meeting between Glens Falls Superintendent Paul Jenkins and the public, Glens Falls senior Nick Westfall shared the results of mental health survey he conducted of 120 students, 82 from Glens Falls.

“About 80 to 90 kids out of the 118 said that they were experiencing mental health problems,” he said. 72 had anxiety, 52 depression, and 14 suicidal thoughts. He said 61% said their school’s actions towards COVID-19 directly affected their mental health.

“I think this is a real problem, that needs to brought to the board,” Mr. Westfall said. “Because I don’t think the school sometimes understands the exact mental health that our students are going through.”

Asked who they go to if they have mental health troubles, 46% said close friend, 31% said parent or guardian, 18% said no one, 8% said a therapist.

“One kid out of the 120 said they would talk to a school counselor or a school official,” Mr. Westfall said.

“I’m not here because I personally want to have a prom…” Mr. Westfall said. “It’s once again because students in this school are having serious problems due to the reluctance to bring back social events and other sports.”

“I don’t think that those statistics are probably very far off,” Mr. Jenkins said. He said the school partners with an outside group to provide students in every building with counseling.

If we don’t know about it, you can’t help them,” Mr. Jenkins said. “It’s not uncommon…for students to want to talk to their friends, as opposed to someone else. But we have to get our students to that point where they’re going to come and talk to us.”

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