Covid-19 Cases at Joliet Catholic Academy

jca-online.org

Jessica Stevens

The Joliet Catholic Academy High School on Larkin Avenue will be going online temporarily due to multiple students testing positive for Covid-19. JCA will take a week to close the campus and deep clean the academy. Parents of Joliet Catholic Academy learned of the positive cases and the week of online learning through email and voicemail, although they did not learn how many students may have been exposed to Covid-19. The emails and voicemails did not say where the students may have been exposed to the virus but did reassure parents that they are performing contact tracing. Students with positive cases, and potential exposure have been told to quarantine at home for fourteen days.

Joliet Catholic Academy originally planned to continue in-person classes when they thought there was only one positive case of Covid-19. They planned to deep clean and disinfect areas with possible exposure of the Covid-19 case but changed their plans when multiple cases appeared.

            Joliet Catholic Academy just started classes on August 24^th with proper Covid-19 restrictions set in place. Students and staff are required to take temperature tests, social distance, and wear masks while on campus. JCA even had students, staff, and faculty go through drills to practice social distancing in the hallways and how classes will be conducted in person. JCA classrooms have also been modified to follow social distancing rules and students have been giving assigned seats to help with contact tracing. Even gyms and large hallways have been converted into classrooms to create space. JCA shortened the in-person class week to four days a week, with one day of online learning. The in-person class days have been shortened to dismiss students at 12:20pm to avoid having a lunch period. Even the football season, a sport JCA has best known for, has been delayed until spring.