Classroom seating arrangements altered due to COVID-19 protocols

With school fully back in session, meaning full days, and full classrooms, the seating arrangement can cause some chaos in classrooms. Some classrooms are at maximum capacity. 

The Illinois mask mandate was taken into effect on Monday 8/23, which includes wearing masks full time in enclosed buildings and having a 3 foot mandate. The new mask mandate “which states that everyone over 2 years old must wear a mask indoors, regardless of vaccination status, begins Monday.”   NBC Chicago News said. 

Some of the classrooms at Riverside Brookfield High School are at maximum capacity. In other words, classroom seats are closer than they should be along with the students. Teachers and students generally want to stay in school like normal, if desks keep violating state mandates, and students and staff continue to wear their masks improperly, there is a high possibility that we will have to go back to online learning. With the delta variant in the United States, it is important to enforce wearing masks the proper way.

COVID-19 and the new variant are on the rise. “The CDC’s updated figures for the week ending July 31, show the delta variant, including its sub-lineages, all of which are classified as variants of concern, made up more than 93 percent of all U.S. cases during the last two weeks of July.”  said News said. The security guards at RBHS offer masks as soon as you walk into the building. They also enforce the three foot mandate or “stay three feet apart”. 

There isn’t much RB administration can do about the amount of students in classrooms, however, the community can keep encouraging students and staff to wear their masks properly and maintain an appropriate distance from one another.