“It’s hellish what we are asked”: in the office of a school principal, in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis – archyworldys

Posted today at 1:14 p.m., updated at 1:18 p.m.

It is 7:45 am, the sidewalks of Cergy (Val-d’Oise) are plunged into a thick fog. In front of the Hazay elementary school, Olivier Flipo is busy in the cold around the sign that will welcome families in a few minutes. Director of the establishment for five years, he has spent the weekend dealing with the bad news that has accumulated since Friday. The posters he is putting up summarize it: on this Monday, January 10, out of the eleven classes of the school, one is closed due to the absence of a teacher, and six have at least one cases of Covid-19 among their students.

Olivier Flipo, whose school was relatively untouched last week, is preparing for a long day. Also a delegate of the Teachers Union-UNSA of Val-d’Oise, he agreed to receive us within the four walls of his office, the scene of his daily management of the consequences of Covid-19 at school.

140 absent out of 250 students

It’s barely 8 a.m. when, as he is reviewing his morning emails, a mother calls to tell him that her son has tested positive for Covid-19. A quick glance at his student lists: “It’s a new class”, concludes this 57-year-old man, director for twenty years, getting up quickly. You have to pick up the students who have already arrived at the extracurricular center, isolate them, notify the parents so that they come back to have them tested. To all the others, those who will arrive by 8:30 am with their parents, a teacher will explain in the square that they must leave. Monday morning, the protocol in force for a week provides that in each positive case, all the children in the class do an antigen test or PCR the same day to be able to return to school, then two self-tests on D + 2 and on D + 4.

“Come on, we open the doors otherwise we have up to 10 hours to check all the certificates”, he launches shortly after 8 am, while the first families are already looking at the sign, in evidence on the square. Some had not been aware of the e-mails sent this weekend to inform them of the situation and leave immediately, for lack of testing. Those who have their negative test certificates line up in front of an entrance reserved for classes affected by Covid-19.

At the door, the director, assisted by a teacher, checks and records everything on the “Newspaper” that it was created to follow each situation: date, time, nature and result of the test; in pink for the positive ones, in yellow for the PCR or antigenic tests of the contact cases, in blue for the self-tests on D + 2 and D +4.

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