North Penn School District has been a safe environment, with masks required and distanced lunches, but within these past two days, I’ve discovered information that I think every student in North Penn should know about. I’m writing this to spread info and get all students involved in what’s going on in their district.

As a former student of Pennfield, I was heartbroken to hear of the passing of Mr. Jenkins, a social studies teacher who had taught at Pennfield for 15 years. He was 47, and fully vaccinated. When trying to find information on him, I found that North Penn School District has never acknowledged him. No posts on Knight Crier, nothing on the Facebook page. North Penn Now posted a small story, but that’s technically not associated with the school district. He gave 15 years to this district, and then was swiftly forgotten. North Penn needs to acknowledge this teacher and how appreciated he was in the district.

For just January 3rd, 241 total cases in the district were announced. 241 in one day. And that’s only those who took a test and it was positive, there’s always the chance of false negatives and those who don’t show any symptoms so they don’t get tested. Because it was the first day, these obviously weren’t caused by being in school, but some of these students did come into school and then we’re sent home, exposing everyone who they were around. Yesterday, January 4th, there were 110 reported cases across the district. That morning, I learned that the teachers in NPHS got an email telling them they weren’t allowed to send anymore students to the Health Suite that period: it was overcrowded.

North Penn needs to acknowledge Mr. Jenkins, and needs to protect its students.