LANSING, Mich. — Lansing Catholic High School is now requiring students who wish to continue online learning to explain why. Administrators say this is to make sure students aren’t taking advantage of the system.
“As long as you have some reason you need to be online, that option will be there for you,” said Dominic Iocco, Lansing Catholic High School President.
Starting this week, Lansing Catholic students wishing to learn from home need to explain why they’re not taking classes in-person.
Iocco said some students used it as an excuse to travel out of state.
“When you get a large number online, and they are using it just so they can spend time in Arizona for example and then complaining they have to be on a Zoom call at 8:30 in the morning that creates a lot of problems for our teachers,” he said.
Iocco said the school is trying to create a balance for teachers who are providing online and in-person learning.
He said online learning should be used for students who can’t be in a classroom.
“That can be anything. It could be you live with your grandparents or you have high anxiety about the whole situation,” said Iocco.
According to Lansing Catholic High School officials, two students did catch COVID-19 so far this year. They say the students were infected out of school and it didn’t spread in the classrooms.
Students who didn’t want to be identified told News 10 they wish more was done after some teachers were quarantined.
However, Iocco said the school followed it’s plan and did the appropriate contact tracing.
“We constantly approve those. If we’ve learned anything, what you think might work might not be the best option,” he said.
The school said it hasn’t seen many students switching between online and in-person learning this year.
St. Gerard Catholic School is also changing its online-learning option.
Last month the school planned to have all students return to the classroom this week in an effort to ease the teachers' workload. However, the Catholic Diocese of Lansing said it is now partnering with another Catholic school, near Flint, to provide online instruction.
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