Following suit with other states like Ohio and Maryland, Colorado’s governor, Jared Polis, announced on March 18th that all schools are closed until April 17th, calling it an “extended spring break”. When asked about it later that week, the governor seemed to believe that there is little chance of returning to school in April. 

Many students seem to have the same sentiment, like Anja Schmidt (11) for example who said “We have no grip on the situation” in response to asking if we would return to school on April 17th. Colorado’s exponentially growing number of cases of COVID-19 and the lack of testing kits has led to uncertainty in many. But the reasons do not stop there. Everyone has to be precautionary as we have less confirmed cases than a good amount of European countries such as Italy, who on March 22nd had the highest amount of deaths related to the Coronavirus in a day. These factors are why school closures are for everyone’s safety.

Many Manitou students don’t seem to have a problem with the “extended spring break” like Kiriana McNearnie (11), who said, “I would actually be fine with that because then I could focus on biking.” As well as Dallen Alexander (10), who said, “That would be gamer.” It is best if everyone, Manitou and surrounding areas, remains calm yet smart in response to the Coronavirus as Spring Break approaches as well as beyond. School closures are just one way to ensure that everyone is safe and the spread of COVID-19 can be prevented.