With most COVID-19 guidelines, like masking, removed for the 2022-2023 school year, a sense of normality seems to have come back to Moorestown Friends School. Yet, in January, the Class of 2030 had an outbreak of COVID cases, with no mass email to the entire community like before. While there have been updates to the schools’ COVID Dashboard, some students and faculty say the policy changes are a shift in mindset that the community has experienced regarding illnesses and COVID. 

When asked about the current COVID policies employed by the school, Upper School Director Noah Rachlin said that currently the “primary form of communication [regarding cases] is the dashboard.” Contact tracing has been confirmed to have ended since the end of the 2021-2022 school year. Rachlin states that the change in policy results in part “[as an] acknowledgement that [the world is] in a different phase of the virus than before … [so] we’re communicating differently than we were before.” However, Rachlin added that the school would mass-communicate to different parts of the community if there are events, trends, or information in cases that would impact members of respective divisions. 

Fifth grade teacher Christine Cerruti expressed how she now feels less concerned to COVID rules as opposed to her feelings at the beginning of the pandemic: “Definitely, I have … seen [numbness] in myself, I know I was really, really nervous when COVID first started … I found myself feeling nervous anytime that I was inside … and being really strict on kids not talking when masks were off,” she stated. 

Even so, Cerruti expressed that reduced concerns regarding COVID may not necessarily be entirely bad: “There’s always a risk [when you’re not wearing a mask], like when you go to the grocery store, but I think it’s kind-of worth it because it’s nice to feel back to normal, and even those who do get sick don’t get it as bad.” 

Cerruti continued regarding this new-found sense of normalcy: “I’m glad to not feel as nervous as I did in 2020. I’m fully vaccinated and my whole family is [too] so it feels nice to not have to wear a mask or not worry about being inside. Wearing a mask while teaching isn’t ideal, so it’s nice to be more or less back to normal.”

Sarah Capparelli ’26 disagreed, and said she thinks that students are still being cautious and haven’t become numb to COVID like others suggest: “I don’t think students have become numb to COVID because people have a fear of it coming back. If it does come back, they’re afraid old COVID guidelines will have to return.”

Caroline Aglialoro ’24 stated that she wishes that the school had continued its updates regarding outbreaks: “I … feel like we should still be informed about [outbreaks] like what happened in the fifth grade.” Furthermore, she stated that she feels uncomfortable at times with the lack of a mask mandate, as a lack of masking can be risky for the immunocompromised. Aglialoro continued, “I’m not sure I would be that comfortable with the entire [Upper] School congregating in the Meetinghouse.”

However, even though she is uncomfortable in larger groups, Aglialoro says she enjoys being mask-free and getting to be able to be with her friends again. 

Flick Parker ’24 also echoed this sentiment, saying it felt like the policies were “lifted [all] at once.” Like Aglialoro, Parker also shares discomfort around the idea of returning back to normality when there are those at risk of becoming ill: “I feel guilty about it. There’s immunocompromised people that I care for, so I wear a mask in crowded spaces, but sometimes people stare when I do, so it gets awkward.”  While he agrees that it’s nice to have some return to normalcy, Parker still recognized that COVID has not “completely left [our] lives yet.”

With talks around the proposal from the FDA for a yearly COVID vaccine – similar to an annual flu shot – Cerruti stated that it is good to stay diligent with protecting oneself: “I think [yearly] vaccines would help people from getting sick, especially since we aren’t wearing masks anymore.”

Even with this, Cerruti thinks that the return to normality has brought good, despite the pandemic not being quite over: “I think that we’re moving back on the right track. Even though there’s always a risk … and being numb to COVID affects everyone, it’s gotten better over the past years for immunocompromised people … It’s just nice to be back [to normal].”