By Justin Hsieh
The Huntington Beach Union High School District (HBUHSD) announced this afternoon that it would postpone all nonessential extracurricular gatherings, joining a growing list of event postponements and cancellations across the state intended to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
“All extracurricular and cocurricular activities will be postponed until further notice,” HBUHSD Superintendent Clint Harwick said in a statement. “Examples include, but are not limited to, performing arts, banquets, field trips, conferences, etc. The Sunset and Goldenwest Leagues have postponed all athletic competitions until further notice.”
The district’s policy on COVID-19, Harwick said, follows the lead of government organizations including the Orange County Health Care Agency (OCHCA), the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The decision to postpone activities followed the release of new guidance on public gatherings from the CDPH yesterday.
“The timely implementation of aggressive strategies that create social distance and those that reduce close contact of people not regularly together, including limiting gatherings, has proven effective in prior pandemics at delaying rates of transmission and reducing illness and death,” the CDPH guidance read.
These strategies, the CDPH said, include canceling or postponing gatherings that increase the risk of transmission between individuals. Such events include any gatherings of more than 250 people, small gatherings held in tight venues that do not allow sufficient distancing (six feet) between attendees and gatherings of more than 10 individuals at high risk of severe illness from COVID-19; the CDPH said all of these should be limited at least for the month of March.
“This applies to all non-essential professional, social, and community gatherings regardless of their sponsor,” the CDPH guidance read. “Gatherings that do not meet the aforementioned criteria should only be conducted when they are essential… This guidance does not apply to activities such as attendance at regular school classes, work, or essential services.”
Many FVHS student athletes expressed dismay at the announcement.
“I’m really disappointed because our team and I have been working really hard and we thought that this was the season that it was all going to pay off, but unfortunately things got postponed and our shot may have just been cancelled,” varsity tennis player junior Ben Nguyen said. “I definitely understand where the district is coming from; they’re just really concerned for our safety. I just hope that things don’t escalate more than they have right now.”
Several hours after the district released its statement, the Associated Student Body’s Student Forum commission announced that Springfest – the annual community fair hosted by ASB and FVHS clubs – would be postponed.
“We are sorry to inform you that Spring Fest will unfortunately be postponed until further notice due to the growing concern of the COVID-19,” Student Forum representative Tara Lam said in a statement to club presidents. “Once again, we are so sorry for this inconvenience, but we value our community’s safety above all else.”
Multiple school- or extracurricular-related events have already been cancelled or postponed due to coronavirus concerns. The annual California-Nevada-Hawaii Key Club District Convention, an event that brings thousands of people across the three states together and was scheduled for March 13-15, was cancelled on Tuesday, March 10.
“As this is my last year in the club and my only year as president, I was quite sad to hear the news,” FVHS Key Club President senior Brian Nguyen said. “I understand why they would cancel the event; it is a huge event and catching the virus wouldn’t be a shock if the event wasn’t cancelled.”
Earlier this week, the FVHS color guard saw their competition season truncated in a series of announcements from Winter Guard International and the Winter Guard Association of Southern California, in which the national and local organizations suspended all events for the remainder of the 2020 season.
“When I found out about the whole season being cancelled, I almost cried because I didn’t know the next time I would be able to get to perform,” color guard senior Wilson Nguyen said. “This was one of the most successful seasons in our history and it was unfortunate that we didn’t get to finish it to the very end.”
Academic competitions have also been affected. The Model United Nations (MUN) club at FVHS, for example, was preparing to compete in the annual SCMUN conference, which would have convened hundreds of students at the University of California on March 28 and 29.
“I received an email from the Secretary-General saying that since USC has banned all large school events, that SCMUN would be included with that ban as well,” FVHS MUN President Jeffrey Carr said. “I was disappointed with the cancellation but not surprised. It seems like everything throughout California and most of the country is being cancelled.”
COVID-19 concerns have also led the College Board to cancel administrations of the March SAT at over 140 locations, including over 40 in California. The March SAT was cancelled countrywide in 30 countries.
“Personally for me I wouldn’t be very upset if the test did end up getting canceled because coronavirus is a really serious issue and I’d take the safety of my peers and family any day over the SAT, which can simply be moved to a later date,” said junior Anton Nguyen, who is scheduled to take the SAT on Saturday. “We’re going to take it anyway so there isn’t any real reason to be upset, it is on the student to keep studying in that gap period between canceled date and the actual date.”
Colleges, universities and K-12 school districts across the state and country have declared or prepared to declare campus closures in recent weeks, including UCI, UCLA, UCSB, UCSD, CSU Long Beach, CSU Fullerton, Cal Poly Pomona, Golden West College, Coastline College and Orange Coast College – schools which together accounted for around 70% of the FVHS graduating class of 2019.
According to Harwick, the HBUHSD is at the lowest level of concern for COVID-19, falling within the first of four scenarios of severity outlined by the CDPH’s guidance for schools. In the event that an HBUHSD student or staff member tests positive for the virus, the district would work with local public health officials to determine if and for what time a school closure would be warranted.
The risk of infection in Orange County is believed to be low, according to the OCHCA. At press time, the county had four confirmed cases and a possible two additional cases of the virus.
Best practices to prevent infection recommended by the CDC, WHO and HBUHSD include hand-washing with soap, avoiding touching one’s face, staying home when sick and avoiding close contact with people who are sick.
While surgical masks are important in keeping infected individuals from spreading the virus, they do not prevent uninfected individuals from inhaling the virus and should not be stockpiled so as not to create shortages in hospitals, where they are needed.
