As you know if you are reading this article somewhere on the Backer campus today, St. Louis U. High students will once again return to Oakland Avenue to resume in-person learning after a brief three-day stint of attending classes via Zoom last week.

The safety committee met last Friday, Jan. 7,  to determine whether it was safe for students to return to campus on Monday. To make their decision, the group looked at a number of factors including area hospitalizations, positivity rates and the R-naught factor. In an email to the school community on Friday afternoon, Gibbons announced that students would be returning to in-person classes on Monday. 

“We were saying that we'd love to be back, but first we need to look at data before we make that decision,” said Gibbons. “And sure enough, when we met on Friday,  the data was saying exactly what we hoped it would and that influenced our decision to say that we're ready to come back.”

While the return to in-person learning brings with it much excitement, it also brings a few notable changes to the school’s Covid protocols. The most notable of these new protocols: a ban on cloth face coverings.

“Most cloth masks are not double layered, or, if they're ill-fitting then they don't prevent anything from coming in and out so they are practically useless,” said Gibbons. “Our protocol is going to be that students must wear a three-ply paper mask or an official SLUH mask because we designed them and know that they're perfectly aligned with the CDC’s expectations.”

Previously, students and parents received a surprise email from SLUH  Principal Ian Gibbons S.J. on New Year’s Eve, canceling classes scheduled for Monday, Jan. 3 and Tuesday, Jan. 4 and announcing that the rest of the week’s classes would be virtual. The administration made the move given the high transmissibility of the Omicron variant and after seeing a recent surge in cases. 

“We decided to do the virtual bridge week because we had a lot of families reporting that they were symptomatic or were very concerned about contacts with positive cases from their holiday travel but they didn’t have access to tests,” said Gibbons. “There was a lot of chaos and confusion going on and just that unknown element really was a contributing factor in us making that decision to go virtual.”

The newest announcement from SLUH administration announcing the return to in-person classes was met with eager applause by faculty and students alike who had missed the in-person interactions that are impossible in an online format. 

“I'm excited to be back with my students in person. I know that things will be difficult for a while and we'll have lots of people in and out of quarantine,” said math teacher Stephen Deves. “Over the last couple of years, we've learned just how important it is for students to be together in person. There's a way to still be safe and conscious while keeping in-person a priority and I'm glad the administration understands that.”

“I love getting to go to school in person because it allows me to connect with my classmates on a personal level and truly brings the brotherhood to SLUH and you don’t get that same experience during virtual school,” said senior Joey Inserra.

Conditions will continue to be monitored by the safety committee. If the school or city see a large spike in hospitalizations or cases the committee could decide to transition back to virtual classes. Developing conditions will also determine whether school-sponsored trips will occur. As of now, all international trips are canceled until the summer but domestic trips are still on. 

“There is no substitute for being together. We know the importance of  human elements and the deep psychological and sociological needs of teaching and we can't replicate that over Zoom,” said Gibbons.  “We're excited to be back. We're excited to be able to have retreats and have other events. But we will continue to monitor the situation both within the SLUH community and the greater St. Louis area and make data-based decisions.”