Covid-19: What School is Like Now in Shanghai
I returned to school three weeks and three days ago in Shanghai, with just a few days left in this bizarre 2019–2020 school year. As I predicted in my last article, being back at school is wildly different than what I had built up in my head. I imagined a sort of post-apocalyptic school, à la Walking Dead. Thankfully, despite my vivid imagination, it’s really not like that.
The temperature checks are quick and painless. I get to school early, so it takes me about 1 minute more to get into school than it usually would. First, I fill out my form, which requires a checkmark of “no, no one in my house nor myself has a high temperature or any symptoms” and a signature. Then, I stand in front of the body camera to get my temperature checked, and the guard announces it in Chinese for all to hear (not sure if this is part of the process or just fun for him), and I go to the next step. Here, a staff member gives my form the Hole Punch of Approval, and I am granted entry into the school.
On the first day back, all staff and students wore masks. But within three hours of being at school that Monday, the school received new government-mandated guidance. While we are all required to have a mask, we are not required to wear them, provided that the classroom is well-ventilated and social distancing rules are respected. That is a relief to many of us.
In practice, the sanitization and social distancing have been sort of odd, but easy to follow. When returning from recess, students must hand sanitize. The smell of the kind we use reminds me of some seedy bar back home, where I should have a lime in hand and some salt on my wrist. Not the best smell in the morning (although a little tantalizing at the end of a long day!). After each class, students wipe down desks and any shared materials with antibacterial wipes. The amount of waste from the wipes kills me, but I suppose a necessary evil. They eat lunch in the classrooms (and I run off to the library for some quiet), and they are allowed to mix with their peers from the same year group. However, students are banned from mixing with other year groups. This means no mixed recess, assemblies, or House meetings (yes, exactly like the Houses in a Harry Potter film).
The oddest part of being back is the obvious gaps in students and staff — it’s like their presence was a dream. It’s hard to tell that they were even here to begin with. I had a class of 17 that has now shrunk to 14. Homeroom teachers still locked out of China have been replaced by other staff members, who didn’t usually have homerooms. It’s working, but I have to say it’s sad for my kids who are still learning online, unable to finish their year with their friends, and for many, say goodbye. With international life, there can be a massive turnover of students and staff each year, so having closure at the end is very important to our community. Teachers are finding creative ways around it, but it just isn’t the same.
Despite the borders being closed since March 28th, there is some belief that COVID-19 will be re-imported by foreigners. Therefore, schools with an international student body are under stringent watch. If a class has more than three students off with a fever-related illness, it triggers an investigation by the CDC. Then, they come in, and at the most severe, they can shut the school down. In less severe situations, they can decide that the class and teacher need to undergo home quarantine. Nothing like that has happened to us yet, but we have been warned. We must keep the classroom temperature between 24–28°C (75–82°F) to avoid causing sickness in our kids (is this a thing? I thought that was an old wives tale!).
What the biggest issue is now, spoken in whispers, is the “Second Wave”. It seems to be on the brink of happening, but China has always ruled with a strength unmatched by other countries, as we already see the reaction to this week’s smaller outbreak in Beijing. Even from over 1,000 km (684 miles) away, we’ve had a fall out from it, which I hadn’t even considered.
Last night, a parent from my wife’s school, who had returned from a business trip to Beijing on the weekend, reported a high temperature after their child had been to school. The possible trickle-down effect — or maybe better named “explosion of consequences” — could be enormous. As of today, this child’s class is under quarantine. The whole school has to return to Day One with masks and social distancing, as well as needing to prepare for a potential emergency closure, with only days left.
Now, what if the family tests positive after their asymptomatic child came to school and maybe (even through others) interacted with my wife, who comes home to me, and then I go to my class. What happens then? Could I infect an entirely new demographic? I suppose the short answer is yes.
It’s incredible how one person could potentially affect so many others-which is ironic, considering how often we tell students this in general. So now everyone is on standby. If there is a mini-outbreak at my wife’s school, what do I do? Do I stay at home because there is a significant risk? Is it a big risk? It might sound implausible, but so many implausibilities became plausible this year. I don’t know because, of course, we are the first ones to go through this, and there hasn’t been an Idiot’s Guide to “The Second Wave of the Coronavirus Outbreak” published yet.
Maybe I need to contact the publishers.
