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
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…
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…
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