All tagged Coronavirus

Hateful Vandalism at WES, Investigation Ongoing

Hateful Vandalism at WES, Investigation Ongoing

Swarthmorean Staff
WSSD

Superintendent Dr. Wagner Marseille began his remarks at the school board meeting on Monday, November 22, by expressing deep concern about graffiti recently found on Wallingford Elementary School property. He noted that the graffiti, which included a racial slur, was a “gross violation of the school district’s commitment, in its mission statement, to “respect for self and others” and “leadership in the global community” — and he assured those gathered that the district is conducting an investigation into the matter.

Board Approves Health and Safety Plan

Board Approves Health and Safety Plan

Morgan McErlean
WSSD

On Monday, August 2, the WSSD school board and school superintendent convened a special meeting to discuss the health and safety plan for this coming school year. The plan was ultimately approved after a period of impassioned public comment. Free to read and share.

Humans of The Swarthmorean: Dorothy Briscoe

Humans of The Swarthmorean: Dorothy Briscoe

Swarthmorean Staff

When Dorothy Briscoe read our March 16 article that described her experience about how Covid-19 is affecting people who are living with disability in our community, she told her support person from Values into Action — a Delaware County organization that provides services and support to people with disabilities — that the piece had gotten some things wrong. To help set the record straight, here is Dorothy Briscoe telling some of her story in her own words.

Homeless During Covid

Homeless During Covid

Stefan Roots

The story of three people living in a Chester homeless shelter when Covid-19 struck. This is the second article in our series about how the pandemic has affected people who are living with disability in our community. Free to read and share

Staying Afloat: Local Businesses Lean on the Community to Survive the Pandemic

Staying Afloat: Local Businesses Lean on the Community to Survive the Pandemic

Guest User
Local Business

In light of the pandemic, Swarthmore’s annual Home for the Holidays event has been significantly pared down from what the community has come to expect. In place of the traditional horse-drawn carriage rides, visit from Santa Claus, and dreidel games, there will be a handful of holiday activities that people can do on their own. Since the day of seasonal festivities is usually a big shopping day in the borough, the cancellation is worrisome for some retailers. Free to read and share

Teachers Find New Ways to Connect With Kids, Each Other

Teachers Find New Ways to Connect With Kids, Each Other

Rachel Pastan
WSSD

COVID-19 has upended strategies teachers rely on to connect with kids and teach their subjects. In the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District, teachers have had to switch gears several times, going all-virtual last spring, then preparing over the summer for in-person school, only to learn that school would stay virtual after all. Then, in October, most teachers went back to school buildings, teaching cohorts of students in a hybrid of in-person and virtual instruction. Free to read and share

Schools May Reopen Soon

Schools May Reopen Soon

Rachel Pastan
WSSD

Will school buildings reopen later this month? Maybe. The Wallingford-Swarthmore School Board discussed the possibility — and what a reopening could look like — at a three-plus-hour meeting on Monday night. Also: concerns about screen time, sports, and more. Free to read and share

Lisa Palmer, the WSSD School Board,* and Our Civic Leaders Are Failing Us

Lisa Palmer, the WSSD School Board,* and Our Civic Leaders Are Failing Us

Todd Strine, Robert Borgstrom, and Gregory Hoy
Publishers' Comment

As September looms, we find ourselves on the verge of a new public crisis. The Wallingford-Swarthmore School District and its superintendent, Lisa Palmer, are sacrificing our kids’ educational and psychosocial wellbeing under the guise of keeping our community safer. The school board’s recent decision to start school virtually – a state of affairs that looks likely to continue indefinitely even if Delaware County’s case count data remains steady — will have adverse consequences for a generation of children. Specifically, it will worsen inequalities in ways that may reverberate for decades.

Victory Gardens 2.0

Victory Gardens 2.0

Sara Kelly

The pandemic may be keeping Swarthmoreans at home, but it’s certainly not keeping all of them in the house. New vegetable gardens are showing up in backyards, patio containers, and community plots all over town, giving many COVID-weary locals reasons to linger outside, while also providing fresh food and abundant beauty.

District Ponders how to Mitigate Risk

District Ponders how to Mitigate Risk

Rachel Pastan
WSSD

The Wallingford-Swarthmore School District plans to open schools for in-person instruction this fall, Superintendent Lisa Palmer wrote in a July 3 email to the school community. “However,” she continued, “we know school must look different.” Palmer went on to discuss the district’s tentative plans, which seek to balance the district’s preference for in-person instruction with concerns about the spread of COVID-19.

The Tom Report

The Tom Report

Virginia Thompson
People of Swarthmore

On Tuesday, March 24, Tom Shaffer of Rutgers Avenue in Swarthmore started feeling sick. This is an account of his illness and subsequent recovery, edited from near daily Facebook posts by his wife, Virginia Thompson, while she was at home in Swarthmore with their two kids, both in their twenties. At first she called her posts “Update on Tom,” but after a while, she started titling them “The Tom Report.”

The Ups and Downs of the SHHS Shutdown

The Ups and Downs of the SHHS Shutdown

Evelyn Meeker
Essay

Looking back on the last weeks of normalcy before the coronavirus pandemic took hold is surreal, to say the least. The shift was sudden: a day off from school, then a full-blown lockdown. At the time, no one could fully grasp the magnitude of what was coming. But people had to adjust and accept it — quickly. When I look back on the 2019-2020 school year, as any bored but reflective teenager would, I recall conversations where a friend would say something like, “I would do anything for a break.” Or, “I wish everything would just pause.” In a sense, we got that, but it shouldn’t take a global pandemic for students to feel like they can take a break or prioritize their mental health.

Last Day of Freedom

Last Day of Freedom

Sophia David

I remember my last day of in-person school. Never in my wildest dreams had I imagined that we would be heading into a seemingly endless quarantine. As I was getting ready for school, I stopped myself. I wondered, “What if this is the last day I will go to school?” Later, as I was giving a friend a ride home, I asked, “What if we just had our last day of school?” “That would be crazy,” he said. I interviewed a few Swarthmore residents to learn about their last regular days.

Borough and CADES Reach Agreement

Borough and CADES Reach Agreement

Rachel Pastan
Borough Council

Swarthmore Borough and the Children and Adult Disability and Educational Services (CADES) reached an agreement on Sunday allowing for the continued use of the Rutgers Avenue school as a quarantine location for CADES clients with COVID-19 who normally live in group homes in the community. Swarthmore Borough had filed an injunction in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas on Tuesday, April 14, seeking to remove patients diagnosed with the coronavirus.

Council on the Small Screen

Council on the Small Screen

Rachel Pastan
Borough Council

Swarthmore Borough Council held a Zoom legislative session on Monday. Approximately 14 people, including borough council members and staff, attended. Much of the evening’s business consisted of ratifying resolutions related to the pandemic. The council ratified Mayor Marty Spiegel’s March 12 declaration of a state of emergency in the borough, as well as the council’s decision to hold meetings virtually as long as the emergency declaration remains in place.

Free to read and share

Viral Vocab

Viral Vocab

J. Bejoca

While the sequestration imposed by the coronavirus has isolated us from one another in many ways, it has also united us through a range of shared experiences, as we all get through this departure from normal life, together (and at least six feet apart). Here is a glossary of the new lingo you’d be picking up in the world, if your friends and neighbors were speaking loudly enough to be heard in the social distance.

Free to read and share

Load More