Leesville didn’t make it through the first official in-person month of classes during the 2020-2021 school year flawlessly.
In fact, of all the public high schools in Wake County, Leesville ranked number one in terms of COVID-19 cases with a grand total of fourteen positive cases. Coming in second behind Leesville was Heritage High School with twelve total cases, and in third was Millbrook High with ten total cases.
While all of Leesville and Millbrook’s cases were among students, four of Heritage’s cases were staff members.
It’s suspected that four of Leesville’s cases have come from sources outside of campus, and it’s surmised that only one case has gotten transmitted while on campus. The other nine cases don’t have enough information behind them to form a possible place of transmission.
When it comes to on-campus cases of transmission, Leesville was one of only two high schools in Wake County where it occurred. The other was at Athens Drive High School, with a cluster that resulted in a total of three confirmed cases.
The spread at Leesville
Only one possible case of on-campus transmission is good news for the Leesville administration. Little to no spread of COVID in the school building means that they are doing an adequate job at enforcing COVID-19 rules. However, not everyone thinks that they’re doing enough.
“We need to get better at protection because I see people walking around with their masks down all the time and no one says anything,” said Kate Gamez Tovar, a Leesville senior.
“I’m not surprised that [Leesville’s] leading because everyone has their mask down here and no one cares. These people just don’t care about COVID,” said Kaitlyn Cannon, another senior at Leesville.
Leesville leading the county in COVID-19 cases didn’t surprise Tovar nor Cannon, and both said that a cluster of cases at Leesville wouldn’t be shocking given how many students disregard the mask mandate. Principle Soloman is consistent with his message regarding the importance of wearing masks, and most teachers are fairly vigilant about spotting students in the halls that are slacking. However, the message doesn’t seem to be getting across to all students.
While most of the student body isn’t overly vulnerable to the side effects of COVID-19, and more students getting vaccinated, no one’s out of the woods just yet.
The United States is nowhere close to the amount of vaccinated individuals needed to form a sort of herd immunity, let alone Leesville where half the students aren’t even eligible for the vaccine.
Everyone at Leesville needs to continue to take the necessary precautions to stop the potential spread of COVID-19 in the building if they want to get back to even slightly normal.
Hi! My name is Jacob Smith and I am a staff writer for The Mycenaean. I am also a political activist and volunteer.