In Indiana, we love our high school sports. Fall athletics such as football, volleyball, tennis, soccer – it doesn’t matter.
If we have a child or grandchild competing one evening, we want to be there to watch the game and support their team.
But this is 2020, the time of COVID-19. Though schools are back in session, they’re balancing in-person instruction with health concerns of students, teachers and staff.
One such infection in a high school can lead to 14-day quarantines for dozens of students and instructors. At Twin Lakes High School in Monticello, “multiple positive cases” for COVID led to the cancellation of all classes this week. Students are expected to return Sept. 10.
At Twin Lakes and other Indiana schools, that means no team practices and no games – even if every fan, coach and game official masks up to protect themselves and those attending the event.
Should COVID-19 cases spike or new information about the disease reveal new dangers, schools must be willing to change paths. Just as Twin Lakes did.
To assist school corporations in making such difficult decisions, state officials this week launched a new color-coded system – in blue, yellow, orange or red – that indicates severity of COVID’s spread in each of Indiana’s 92 counties. It’s based on a formula of the number of new cases per 100,000 residents, the positivity rate and the recent change in that rate.
Blue means minimal spread; yellow, moderate spread; orange, moderate to high spread. If the county is colored in red, state health officials recommend middle and high schools move to remote learning and cancel all extracurricular activities.
Wednesday, only one county, Martin County in southern Indiana, was colored red with a 20.8% positivity rate. You can check your home county’s positivity rate at https://www.coronavirus.in.gov/2393.htm .
Sports are an important part of a well-rounded education, but no school should let fun and games trump health considerations.
Yes, we Hoosiers love our high school sports. But it’s up to school officials, coaches, fans, families and the athletes themselves to make sure safety is job one as fall sports get underway in the pandemic.
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