Highlights Editorial Board

COVID-19 testing officially ended on April 20. Although COVID cases have decreased from August to today, as an editorial board, we believe that the school board should reconsider their decision to end testing.

While COVID-19 is less prevalent than it has been this school year, the pandemic is certainly not over. As of March 22, according to the LA County Public Health Department, there were 2,056 new COVID-19 cases and currently, there are four active cases at the high school.The district should not be taking such extreme measures as ending testing until the pandemic truly comes to an end or at least until the end of this school year. 

Moreover, with the lifting of the mask mandate, it is more crucial to be testing now more than ever. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, masks are one of the first lines of defense against COVID. Therefore, with their removal, it is important to identify students who came in-contact with the virus through weekly testing in order to prevent it from spreading.

We understand that as a school district, it is important to try to return to normal as soon as possible. However, by removing testing altogether, BHUSD is at risk of moving backward rather than forward toward normalcy. After all, if these actions result in COVID-positive students spreading the disease, we could face another surge, which could lead to new mask mandates and shutdowns.