The "Now It's Getting Scary!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading the Thursday evening Lancaster, Pennsylvania newspaper updates that will be printed in the newspaper today.  Pretty neat to be able to view some stories before they ever make the daily  newspaper.  The story that drew my attention as soon as I saw the headline was a story about the amount of COVID-19 cases that have been reported in the school districts of Lancaster County.  Headline read: "More Than 460 COVID-19 cases have been reported at Lancaster County Schools.  Here's where they are:  The cases come from 16 school districts, plus a brick-and-mortar charter school in Lancaster City and the county's career and technology center."  The story continued on with: "With the Pennsylvania Department of Health not tracking COVID-19 cases in schools, it's up to each district to notify the community of a positive test from someone inside its schools.  Reporting methods differ widely from district to district.  Some schools have posted a letter online after discovering each positive test."  I continued on, looking at each school district and their reports.  The schools were listed in alphabetical order with Cocalico School District listed first with 25 cases reported.  They had 11 cases of the virus at their High School with numbers listed for the remainder of their schools.  Columbia Borough Schools followed with a total of 2 cases.  Five more schools were listed and then the school where my grandson Caden is a student, Hempfield School District, which is one of  the largest school districts in Lancaster County, listed 37 cases of the virus; 20 at the High School and the remainder at their other 9 schools.  I reviewed 5 other schools and then I came to Manheim Township School District where I was a student years and years ago and where I returned to teach another 30+ years.  They had 71 cases...WHAT!  Yep...they had 71 cases with 30 of them being at the High School.  That's an entire classroom of students!  There were 14 cases at the Middle School and 7 cases at the Landis Run Intermediate School where I still visit from time to time to take photos for the yearbook which I still do for the school.  I have only made two visits this year, none to take photographs so I had no contact with any of the students and staff except for the main office staff which is housed behind plastic barriers.  You may also remember a story I recently posted about the Guidance Counselor at the Middle School, Mrs. Alexandra Chitwood, who  recently died from the COVID-19 Virus.  Her story was in the local newspaper as well as on NBC's national MSNBC channel.   The remaining 5 school districts had much fewer cases with The City School District of Lancaster, which rivals Hempfield for the most students, having 38 cases of the virus.  The remaining school districts had less except for the final district, Warwick, which had 47 cases reported.  I told my wife that it may be some time before I head back to the Landis Run Intermediate School to take photos again.  Anyway, page after page of candid photos of students with masks in place wouldn't be too spectacular to view in a yearbook .  I did talk with the Principal about starting a web site where students could submit photos of themselves for the yearbook.  In that case they could have photos without a mask on at the time.  I find it hard to believe that all county schools are still holding on-site classes.  Perhaps Pennsylvania's Governor Wolf may soon shut down the public and private schools to help stop the spread of the disease just as he did last school year.  How many students, teachers and administrators must get the virus before they stop the in-peron contact?  We will see!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.