Brevard Public Schools follows the guidelines given by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) which state that a student will be quarantined for 10 days if they are deemed a close-contact to a COVID-19 positive classmate. For some seniors in the Class of 2021, switching to e-learning for the last ten-days of their high school experience felt like the only option. 

“I switched to online learning May 18th because I did not want to get quarantined and miss graduation,” Gibson said. “Although I haven’t been quarantined this entire year, I was concerned that karma would have gotten me as a victim. With my luck, someone I am in close contact with would get COVID-19 the last week of school.”

The CDC announced in February that students will not be quarantined if they are fully vaccinated and have waited through the 14-day period following the second dose. Senior Allison Breidenbach switched to e-learning so that she could qualify for this.

“I was waiting for my two-week-period post-second dose of the vaccine so I switched to e-learning for two weeks and will be back Monday,” Breidenbach said. “I didn’t want the chance of missing graduation so I talked to Fleming who said it was fine for me to switch for two weeks. It’s sad that some seniors who aren’t fully vaccinated are at risk of getting quarantined and missing graduation. It’s forced a lot of seniors to switch online for the last few weeks of high school.”

Senior Sawyer Bracken also switched to e-learning recently.

“My grandmother is coming to see me walk at graduation so I’m not getting quarantined to miss that opportunity,” Bracken said. “She lives in New Jersey. I don’t have a ton of family and I only get to see her every year or two max. I’d been wanting to switch anyways so this situation finally gave me the excuse.”