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Date: 12/21/2021
EASTHAMPTON – Easthampton High School students wishing to take part in winter sports this season must submit to weekly COVID-19 testing – either pooled testing offered by the district or PCR testing – in order to compete.
The School Committee approved a motion requiring athletes’ participation in pooled testing by a vote of 5-1 at its Dec. 14 meeting. The committee followed up that vote with an amendment that would allow PCR testing as an alternative, which also passed 5-1. The policy goes into effect upon students’ return to school after the New Year.
The conversation and vote took place shortly after Superintendent of Schools Allison LeClair gave a COVID-19 update outlining “a little bit of a surge among young people across the state” with out-of-school activities accounting for the majority of the spread.
Mayor Nicole LaChapelle wondered before the vote if the committee had the authority to require pooled testing for athletics when it is not required for all students to attend school. Committee Chair Cynthia Kwiecinski said they did because athletics is an additional activity taking place outside the structure of the school day.
The requirement is specific to Easthampton High School athletes and does not extend to students from other districts participating in hockey and swimming co-op programs. Hampshire Regional High School participates in co-ops with Easthampton for both sports. Smith Vocational and Agricultural School and Northampton High School are co-op members for hockey.
The original motion made by committee member Laurie Garcia also called for a testing requirement for students from other member schools, but that stipulation was ultimately withdrawn. Kwiecinski and Superintendent of Schools Allison LeClair said the committee would not have the authority to compel students from another district to comply to such a policy. Committee member Marin Goldstein also suggested an amendment that would preclude a testing requirement for vaccinated student-athletes. That proposal was not accepted.
“The MIAA (Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association) said there is no precedent for demanding a test for students participating on a co-op team,” LeClair said, referring conversation she had with the MIAA’s Ice Hockey Committee.
According to LeClair, the swim team has 12 members, all of whom are vaccinated. There are 30 students from co-op partner schools participating in the hockey program and according to information volunteered by 24 those families to Athletic Director Brian Miller, 22 of those hockey players are vaccinated.
During the discussion before the vote, LeClair opposed the measure altogether. She argued Easthampton High School’s high vaccination rates and number of student-athletes currently already vaccinated, enrolled in pooled testing or both made the requirement unnecessary.
Of the 83 Easthampton students participating in winter sports, 17 are not enrolled in the voluntary pooled testing currently offered through the district. Of those 17, 14 are fully vaccinated, leaving just three student-athletes unvaccinated and not taking part in the weekly surveillance tests. She also argued that the high school has an 82 percent vaccination rate and had not experienced any spread of the virus with only five reported cases during the course of the school year.
LeClair also considered contact on a basketball court to be of less concern that the thought of students sharing vehicles while unmasked when leaving school. She also noted there was “a movement afoot” with those who felt those who had been vaccinated should not be included in pooled testing.
Additionally, LeClair took issue with creating different standards for Easthampton-specific teams and co-op teams. Of Easthampton’s three co-op partners, Northampton is the only one currently offering pooled testing. While the committee asked Miller and Easthampton High School Principal Bill Evans to speak with Northampton regarding participation in pooled testing and a statement of reasonable assumption of their compliance, because the policy does not make testing a requirement for students of partner schools, it was argued it was not equitable.
Proponents of the requirement, however, argued that while Easthampton had been successful in stemming spread, that success was the result of its strict standards regarding virus mitigation. The lack of uniform standards for prevention were of serious concern. “To me, that’s a bigger reason why you do the pool testing,” Kwiecinski said.
She also opined during the meeting, “The close contact with other communities is what puts kids at risk.”
“Lack of consistency is alarming,” Garcia concurred, referring to the differences in guidelines and enforcement from community to community.
Garcia, an educator with Amherst Regional Public Schools, said one of her students who plays hockey told her few players wear masks. In other instances, she said she has seen masks improperly worn.
“I’ve gone to a couple of indoor basketball games – not our teams – but the masks go down,” she said, adding some members of the crowd do not comply with mask-wearing protocols.
Kwiecinski also said those suggesting vaccinated children should not be part of pooled testing are “behind times” and are not accounting for the number of breakthrough cases that have been documented.
While initially in favor of the pooled testing requirement, committee member Marin Goldstein said the fact the issue was being brought up at this point was problematic. Basketball and swim teams had already begun competition and the hockey team was set to begin playing games the day after the meeting. “I think it’s a factor that we should have considered before ... I think it’s a little bit hard to add a rule after the season has already started,” he said.
LaChapelle agreed that the issue could have been addressed sooner as the MIAA had put forth its initial COVID-19 protocols in October. Those protocols include a mask requirement for athletes, coaches and spectators at indoor sporting events. “To have conversation sooner would have been very helpful,” she said.