“My Daughter’s College COVID Nightmare”
My daughter began her college career in the fall of 2019 at a university in New York State, a day’s drive from home. She had a great fall semester: she loved competing in her Varsity sport, had made many friends, and enjoyed her professors and her classes. Unfortunately, the world was turned upside down, and in March of 2020, my daughter was among the millions of college students who were sent home to finish out their semesters virtually.
As the fall of 2020 approached, while my daughter’s childhood friends were beginning to pack up to head back to their colleges, my daughter was reading rumors on social media that her university was not going to permit her Sophomore Class to return to campus for the fall. We soon discovered that the rumors were true, and my daughter would be beginning her sophomore year taking classes over Zoom from her childhood bedroom.
At this point, I suggested to my daughter that she consider transferring to another college, but she felt that things would be back to normal by the time she returned to campus for the spring semester. My daughter’s prediction was partly correct: she did return to campus spring of 2021, but things were anything but normal: her classes were still online, her college had a mask mandate, and the students were tested twice a week for Covid. The college even had a Covid dashboard indicating the number of positive tests, and once a certain positive threshold was met, the entire campus would go into lockdown.
One Friday evening during the spring semester, my daughter and her suite mates received calls on their cell phones: one of the suite mates had tested positive that day during the mandated twice weekly testing. Despite the fact that the roommate had no Covid symptoms and was feeling perfectly fine (and never did get sick), they were told that they had 30 minutes to pack a bag for a two week stay at the quarantine dorm. Students in the quarantine dorm were housed in single rooms with a bathroom. Food was dropped off at their doors. They were not permitted to leave their rooms. Perfectly healthy kids who had just tested negative for Covid were denied exercise and sunshine for two weeks for their “health and safety”.
One of my sons who at the time was living 45 minutes away from my daughter, posted in our family group chat that he was going to drive down and “bust her out”. My daughter said that would be impossible because if she didn’t abide by the Covid edicts, she would be kicked out of school. In addition, even if she didn’t care about being expelled, the dorm was being guarded by campus security 24/7 to prevent escape.
At one point during the quarantine, my daughter stopped eating the dorm food dropped off at her door and began eating the protein bars she had packed instead. The trays of dorm food collected untouched outside her door for days before someone from the college contacted her to check in and inquire about her health.
My daughter, who is extremely social and loves being in the company of others, said that those two weeks in solitary confinement with no exercise or fresh air were the worst days of her life.
I had quickly discovered at the start of Covid that anyone who questioned the college Covid policies was vehemently attacked and accused of being “grandma killers” and “anti-science”. While my daughter was trapped in solitary confinement, I was reading parent comments on the school parent page thanking the school for “keeping our kids safe.” I commented to my husband, “Do these parents not realize that many colleges don’t have any of these cruel Draconian Covid policies and their kids are also safe?”
The vaccines came onto the scene the last few weeks of the spring semester. Due to a long-standing health issue, my daughter’s doctor had advised her not to get the Covid vaccine. Twice a week when my daughter reported for her mandatory Covid test, she was asked if she also wanted to get the vaccine. Each time she declined.
At the time, I was dismayed that the school was even offering these vaccines to the students as they had no long-term safety data. When the J&J vaccine was paused by the CDC, I was hopeful that the university would re-evaluate its stance and discontinue its vaccination program. Instead, the college simply stopped administering the J&J vaccine, but continued with Moderna and Pfizer. I again remarked to my husband, “How can the college ethically be promoting these shots when they have no long term safety data, and one of them that they had deemed “safe” has just been paused due to safety concerns?” The only silver lining was that the college was only recommending the shots and was not mandating them.
Having completed her sophomore year, my daughter was again optimistic that her junior year would be “back to normal”. Then the bottom fell out.
In the summer of 2021, the college announced that it was going to mandate the Covid vaccine. A few days after submitting her medical exemption from her personal physician, my daughter received notice that her medical exemption had been denied. I was shocked and outraged that a college administrator who had never set eyes on my child was interfering in the sacred doctor/patient relationship and jeopardizing the health of my daughter.
My husband hoped that by calling the school and explaining the situation, the college would reverse its decision. Unfortunately, the conversation did not go as we had hoped. The college MD told my husband that the vaccines were perfectly safe, and he would be happy to call my daughter’s MD and explain that there was no cause for concern. When that didn’t convince my husband, the college MD inexplicably brought former President Trump and the fact that we live in rural America into the conversation. At that point, my husband realized that continuing the discussion would be a waste of time and ended the call.
(Later we were informed by another employee that the university had established a policy that all medical exemptions were to be denied if that student had ever received any other vaccine. We were also told that the college had a vaccination percentage that they had to meet.)
Having had her medical exemption denied, an employee sympathetic to my daughter’s plight suggested that my daughter apply for a religious exemption.
Shortly after submitting her notarized religious exemption, my daughter received a letter granting her a religious exemption and outlining the terms that she would need to abide to in order to maintain her exemption:
Twice a week testing for Covid
Mask mandate (this mandate was in effect for the vaccinated, too.)
No participation in clubs
No practicing or competing in her Varsity sport
The last stipulation was the most painful as my daughter had already missed seasons of competition due to Covid and now she was going to miss her junior year as well.
Although the college deemed my daughter too dangerous to be able to practice or compete outdoors with her teammates, the college had no safety concerns assigning my daughter to on-campus housing living with three of her teammates. I thought this was exceptionally cruel as my daughter was reminded daily of what she was missing out on and was alone in the apartment on weekends while her teammates were traveling to competitions.
On a Friday evening after 9 pm, weeks into the fall semester of her junior year, my daughter was sent an email informing her that if she didn’t get the Covid vaccine by the end of the weekend, she would be dis-enrolled and no longer have access to campus, including her on-campus apartment.
To say the next few days were emotional is a vast understatement. My daughter had abided by all of the stipulations set forth by the college and felt betrayed that the university was breaching their contract. (I was later informed by another parent with a child at this college that other students had also had their religious exemptions rescinded as soon as their semester tuition check had cleared. This parent felt they had been tricked by the administration and her son had been forced to get the vaccine or forfeit a semester of tuition)
My daughter loved her professors and didn’t want to leave her friends, but she was adamant that she wasn’t going to go against her doctor’s advice and risk her health by getting the shot. I was simultaneously relieved and proud that my daughter was standing up to the obscene administration bullying. It felt like she had been in an abusive relationship for over a year and was finally breaking free.
My daughter did not get the shot, and the college was true to its word this time, expelling her as promised, with weeks of work and studying of junior year already completed.
Thankfully, my daughter’s story has a happy ending. She transferred to a college in the South and finished her last two years with a fantastically completely normal college experience. She was able to compete in her sport for her new university and made life-long friends. While her former college was still under a campus-wide mask mandate and practicing social distancing, my daughter was having a blast attending SEC football games in a packed stadium.
My daughter graduated summa cum laude this past spring and has entered the next phase of her life.
While my daughter has moved on from her time in New York, and I no longer feel the intense hatred toward the administration, I will never forget the abuse that was inflicted on a generation of college kids in the name of “health and safety”.
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