By: Chloe Ho; Staff Writer
Everyday, the faculty lounge is open for COVID testing. It’s an efficient in-and-out process, partially thanks to the new appointment system, save for the long wait for testing. For most students, this is a voluntary assessment. Though it’s recommended that they test regularly, it’s not enforced. But for athletes, most are required to test on a much more regular basis. They are usually either assigned times to test or on their own to wedge testing in their busy school schedule. But is this necessity an inconvenience?
Sophomore Shannah Kwan is currently the manager of the girls’ basketball team. She’s one of the many athletes at Mills who have to regularly test. “My schedule was [already] a bit busy before the COVID testing requirements”, she stated in an interview. “It was harder to take the COVID test during class time because I didn’t want to miss any information taught.”
Though the time spent on testing has decreased, it nonetheless takes away time from the school day, which takes away from time that could be spent learning. According to a freshman athlete who asked to stay anonymous, while it takes time out of your day, its efficiency makes up for it. “The lines are no longer extremely long and testing is really efficient, but you still need to stand outside the door for 15 minutes until they call you in.”
Before the appointment system, both the lines and the wait for results took a notably long amount of time. Thankfully there are other options to this even as things seem to have gotten better. As junior track athlete Chester Ho states, “Finding time to COVID test is pretty easy. You can do it after school or just book an appointment at a testing site during the weekend.” While testing at school is an efficient way to get testing off of one’s agenda, there are other choices that may be better for people, as most of instructional school time is limited.
In some cases, COVID testing isn’t required, which is the case with Mills’ swim team. To make up for the lack of rules regarding masks and testing, they have been taking measures to ensure safety, such as ensuring safe distance between swimmers. This is a similar case with track and field, given it’s an outdoors sport – since it mainly takes place outside, testing isn’t needed as much.
However, overall Mills has been one of the many schools in the Bay Area that have been proactive in keeping students safe. Principal Duszynski and school administrators have been actively sending reports of COVID cases at school to keep everyone well-informed of circumstances and COVID testing has been made readily available to everyone. Vaccination rates at Mills are extremely high and all do their part in keeping everyone safe in all aspects of school life, sports included. It’s a great comfort to be a part of a community where COVID is taken seriously and dealt with responsibly and efficiently.
