To whom it may concern, this is an appeal for the decision to return to in-person learning.

Given the nature of this global pandemic, we the student body feel that remote learning is the best option to continue out the Spring semester. Individually, we are at risk of being exposed on a daily basis to Covid-19 when attending practicum. Subsequently, we then put our fellow faculty and peers at risk, regardless of vaccination status; additionally, those who are vaccinated also tend to be asymptomatic and could likely spread Covid-19 without even knowing they are positive. Variants continue to be identified in other countries, and the pattern that we have seen is that these variants inevitably (as well as rapidly and aggressively) end up in the U.S., even with precautionary measures such as masks and vaccine mandates. We saw the progression of Omicron and they have identified various other strains that are either a combination of former variants, or are new altogether. Although there has been a “downward trend” with Omicron lately, that is not enough for us to replace our caution with complacency in hopes that this “trend” means this pandemic is at its end. 

Seeing how Omicron played out, it would behoove us as an institution to circumvent in any which way we can to keep our students and faculty safe. With this in mind, we would like to appeal the decision to return to in-person learning until the necessary measures outlined below take place. We the student body feel the decision to return in person was made without several precautions put in place for us students to feel comfortable returning to in-person learning. As such, the school should provide KN95 masks for all students and free weekly Covid testing on-site; KN95 masks are the only masks that have been identified as effective in preventing the spread of Covid-19 and access to these masks are hard to come by. Additionally, there is concern for being written up (i.e., CANS) for those students who need to miss class due to being exposed or having a confirmed case of Covid; due to the fact that us students are often in settings that are at high-risk of exposure/transmission of Covid-19, we feel there needs to be some plan put in place with this in mind before the decision to return in person becomes effective. Moreover, the school used to inform the student body when there were identified cases of Covid-19 on campus, however, these emails have ceased, despite several students disclosing to each other that they know of active cases among the WJC community that were not reported. We are not opposed returning to in-person learning, but we do feel that this decision may have been made prematurely without the aforementioned precautions taken into account. This petition was made with the health of our students and faculty in mind, and with the input of students who do not feel they have been able to appropriately voice their concerns during this time. Thank you for your support and consideration in this matter!