Pinkerton Shuts Down

Pinkerton Academy, in Derry, experienced a significant amount of exposure of COVID-19 when a student went on campus after being advised to quarantine. This exposure led to the school transitioning to full-time online learning through October and the cancellation of all fall sports, according to WMUR. With this being New Hampshire’s largest high school, it holds a lot of risks when it comes to the spread of the virus. 

Pinkerton had been successful at their hybrid model of school. With low cases and proper safety measures. However, that all changed when students decided not to follow specific quarantine guidelines. Headmaster of the school, Timothy Powers, spoke out about a student who had been told to quarantine. This student was seen on campus after he was instructed to quarantine since someone he had been around tested positive for the virus. Powers thinks that many activities outside of school, mixed with people not following quarantine guidelines are the reason the case levels and exposure levels are so high for both students and teachers. 

The Headmaster ultimately made the decision to go fully remote and cancel fall sports because of the number of people involved with exposure and the expectation of more positive cases, said WMUR. Powers also made it clear that the Department of Health and Human Services will be helping conduct a tracing investigation. This is so that they can notify anyone at risk for testing positive for COVID-19. 

Based on a letter Powers sent out to students and staff, the school will be reassessing this situation at the end of October. It was very unknown at the time if they will be able to go back to their hybrid model, but that was the hope. Thankfully, they did end up going back in the beginning of November. As far as athletics went, Assistant Athletic Director at the high school, Jeff Sojka, said “fall sports are going to be hard to resume in November”. Those, however, did not resume. 

Even though the school did return, it was just recently released by WMUR that “Pinkerton will not return to school after Thanksgiving break”. Instead, they will be online learning until the end of December to aid in the spread of COVID-19. This decision will be reassessed at the beginning of January.