My Daughter Was Exposed To Covid-19 In Her Dorm At ASU This Week

What a crazy week it’s been. Sunday, I got a call from my ASU freshman daughter. She told me she’d been to the mall with her boyfriend, and new roommates. She told me that on the drive back to the dorm, one of the girls got a call from the Covid-19 testing center. She was positive! My daughter said everyone in the car quickly masked up… 

They went to the RA (Resident Assistant), to inform and to ask what they should do next. The assistant didn’t know what to tell them. She told them she would call someone to find out. They were told to go back to their dorm room and wait for further instructions. Two hours later, no call back… I kept asking my daughter, “what’s happening”, and she told me “nothing”! This went on for 2 1/2 hours before her Dad and I started calling around to try to get info and answers.

Anyway, I became involved, because I wrote a Facebook post about our experience. Local news channels picked up on the story. I was asked to do a few interviews about our experience. I was glad to get the story out because I knew it wasn’t just happening to us. Sure enough, several parents wrote to me telling of similar experiences some even contracting Covid at move in! 

Before we committed to supporting our daughter in this desire she has to attend in person classes/ dorm campus life- We attended a Zoom webinar that was presented by ASU. The meeting was focused on ASU Covid preparedness. We listened carefully as they spelled out intention and laid a plan for Covid mitigation and protocol. It was then that we decided to try to trust in this safety plan. We now feel the University tried to sell it to us. Smoke and mirrors comes to mind…We wanted to believe this could work! It has been my daughter’s dream for a very long time. We feel it was a sales job. No implementation of a plan is what we have encountered here! Profit driven, they sold tuition, meal plans and housing in the middle of a pandemic! While pitching a false sense of safety that we parents wanted to believe. I think they really had to know that communal living, and in person classes are unrealistic this year! Too much risk to public health and safety! Will they refund our money if they have to close it all down??

Looking back, we probably should have insisted that our daughter attend a online community college that is far less expensive than ASU! I know that I wanted to believe in my daughters dream and her right to have her freshman year in a dorm. I really tried to support her. These kids already missed out on all of the fun senior events in high school along with a proper graduation ceremony and celebration! 

Anyway, I don’t blame ASU for a Covid-19 or the number of cases they do or don’t have! I simply want to feel as if the school is trying to include parents in the loop so that we can better understand what’s happening there with the virus. I also want to feel like the school is committed to safety, and regulation protocols in regard to Covid-19. These are some of the realities we have encountered… Contact tracing is too slow! COVID testing has a 2 day lag time to obtain results. Meanwhile, kids with positive cases are roaming the campus freely while awaiting results! Even after known exposure to Covid-19… The RA my daughter had told the girls they were free to resume campus life since they didn’t have a positive test yet. They were told to “just wear a mask”! Not a good scenario for mitigation of this potentially dangerous and deadly virus! Partly due to the reality of the conditions. Misinformed personnel with misinformation isn’t helping though! 

In person classes, and dorm inhabitation just may not be possible right now! 

We called all the way along the chain to try to get answers and some kind of protocol to follow. Nobody we reached by phone had a clue what our daughter should do. They told us over and over they would call us back but not one person from the ASU staff ever called us back! Till today, still no call. 

Anyway, if you are interested in the interviews that I did for the news here, is my favorite. This was a news talk radio interview that I did with KTAR, The Gaydos and Chad Show. 

My KTAR interview the Gaydos & Chad Show 

ABC15News Story

I also did an interview with AZFamily3 / CBS5NEWS as well. Although I can’t find the link to give you. I guess that I did get to tell my story! I suppose that it helped a bit? The ABC Reporter that had included me in on her transparency story sent me an update after our story aired… 

I’ve got to admit that being a part of change feels a whole lot better than just feeling helpless! My daughter now tells me that they can see the number of cases when they log in to report daily with their symptoms! 

By the way, here is the Facebook link to the ongoing story. If you would like to be part of the conversation please join in! 

My Facebook Post–  click the link -Join in here! 

Sadly, My daughter is the only roommate of the four girls to test negative for Covid-19! The other two girls tested positive and are ill. They found out on Tuesday eve. Yesterday at 2:00 pm they moved to an isolation dorm. They were not locals and didn’t have an option to go home. 

*My daughter is self isolating in her room here at home. I take food to her and check in with her while wearing a mask… She has an appointment for another Covid test on Saturday…

 tynajoymetzner

Falling For The Idea Of Cooler Temps

This is what is called an artist date. I created this wreath yesterday for fun. It’s a bit early to display but summer has been brutal here in Phoenix! Why not manifest fall at least in my mind… Fall here is Phoenix is the shortest season. We don’t truly get any relief from the heat until November. When it finally cools down, it gets cold and we are into winter! So fall really is just a couple of weeks if we are lucky. I love the colors of fall. The colors of fall have always been my favorite. I grew up in Pennsylvania and fall there was just amazing. I have great memories of the feelings that “fall”, evoked.

I helped Zoe move into her dorm room. A very bittersweet day. Above she is pictured with her boyfriend who also moved into a dorm room across the street from Zoe. I’m glad she is going to get her wish of the dorm experience. I’m not crazy about communal living in the middle of a pandemic! Seriously, I thought ASU would just do online classes this fall! I think this is nuts considering Phoenix was a real Covid hot spot just a few months ago. 

Monday was the first day of school for Amelia. This is what distance learning looks like for a bunch of kids this year. She was excited to get back to some kind of learning structure. We have had glitches within the district and server capacity. They seem to have it back up and running. I’m not very tech savvy so having to be responsible for this type of learning made me so nervous! Fortunately, this little girl is a tech sponge and has learned a lot about navigating online learning! She, amazes me! Navigating between various Zoom rooms and Google Classroom…She is proficient!

I stick to what I’m good at… I make food lol. This is Pork Sausage & Ground Beef Goulash 

We had a wind and dust storm that was pretty intense. The above picture is of a Saguaro Cactus that fell over in the storm. These are protected and believe it or not, worth quite a bit of money. Sad to see them go! 

Somebody is missing Zoe. I think he is moving in to her room!

Residual clouds that I thought were amazing on a walk I took earlier this week… 

I may have an opportunity to work on a few musical endeavors this weekend. It has been months since I uploaded a live video to my YouTube channel. I hope I actually get to work on my music! The pandemic has created a real annoyance in having people constantly home working and doing school! It’s hard on everyone I’m sure. Gone are the days that I have any time of my own! 

Author: tynajoymetzner

I've been a stay at home Mom for many years... I feel that I’ve earned a PhD in life experience! My oldest is 35 and my youngest is 17. This year, I adopted a Granddaughter who is now 8 years old.I’m on a quest to see all that I can be! I am a musician, singer/ songwriter as well. Please visit and subscribe to my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWn_VTumL1QLpukYEamtzcg. Look for me on SoundCloud as well! SoundCloud Profile Link-https://soundcloud.com/tyna-j-phipps I would love to make money doing what I love! I enjoy many domestic things as well. I am at a point in life that I would like to be compensated. View all posts by tynajoymetzner

 tynajoymetzner

Beautiful Is A Mindset And Perspective

Beautiful- written by Linda Perry is my newest cover project. I’ve been working on this for the past few weeks. The vocals are forever a challenge. Their is a reason that I don’t cover female artists/ songs lol. Still, I can so relate to the whole vibe of this song. My interpretation is probably far removed from the creators vision for the song. 

I found myself recently in a dark hole with plenty of indecision. The isolation, and life changes surrounding me have been difficult to process. Not depression, although if I continue to feel powerless it will be overwhelming! I refuse to be a victim and a statistic. So I find myself at a crossroad. I’ve been here before… 

My daughter is moving into her dorm room this weekend! My job and commitment to getting her raised is pretty much complete. All of my excuses to stay are beginning to vanish. Yet my ability to leave is financially quashed. Pathetic! I’ve put a ton of energy, time and hard work into making a nice life for my family. I’ve come up with pretty empty pockets in doing so. 

Self sacrifice, is what happens to full time homemakers. This past week has shown me a lot about the peril of my life choices. Many bad choices! I regret that I’m my own worst enemy in choosing my situation. Yet here I find myself longing for the ability to change my career path and my circumstance. In the middle of a pandemic? ! 

Beautiful Cover –  here is the YouTube link 

SoundCloud track link-

Beautiful Cover Track on SoundCloud 

On the brighter side, the slideshow I put with the YouTube Video track makes me smile. When I look at all the beautiful people that I helped to create and shape, I come up wealthy! I’m glad that I didn’t miss a thing. 

Now, on to the next chapter of my life- The chapter, about me lol… I’m ready!