Dupage Policy Journal

Illinois Math and Science Academy (IMSA) president Evan Glazer is defending reports the residential secondary education institution is not allowing students to leave campus in light of rising COVID-19 infections.

“We have a wide variety of COVID mitigation measures in place, and their fundamental purpose is to keep the people on campus safe and healthy by minimizing risks involved,” Glazer told the DuPage Policy Journal. “Students are asked to minimize travel off-campus because the COVID Delta variant projections are potentially problematic in the month of September. Our data show most COVID cases come from homes, so naturally, we do not want to introduce COVID to the campus, and then result in a shutdown of in-person learning.”

Glazer said he views the school’s actions as simply doing its part to keep the Aurora community – where the campus is based – safe.

“With the COVID pandemic taking a turn for the worse, everyone should be asking themselves how they should adjust their routines, extra activities and safety measures so we can prevent people from getting sick and dealing with another shutdown of humanity,” he said. 

Glazer added parents can request exceptions for activities and appointments they have already scheduled.

Roughly 650 students, grades 10-12, reside in the school’s residence halls, including out-of-town students.

In June, science teacher Dr. Peter Dong used his senior banquet address to tell the audience how he thinks leaders have lost their way in their handling of the pandemic.

“I want you to consider what happened last year and decide for yourself, did we as a society make the right choices?” Dong said in a video posted to YouTube. “You’re the ones affected by the decision so you need to think about it.”

Dong leaves no doubt about how he comes down on the issue. "There’s a phrase people keep using and it’s 'an abundance of caution.' We have a word for that in the dictionary, and it’s called fear. The fear remains long after we’ve been vaccinated from the virus.”

Dong said students being denied the chance for in-person learning has only made the situation worse.

“Remote learning is terrible, and the teachers know it too,” he said. “It’s really hard to be motivated by a blank, talking screen. We can see the number of failures and at-risk students.”

Dong implored students to remember the times.

“I want you to remember what happens to a society when it falls into a downward spiral of fear,” he said. “The reason I bring this all up is because this is not your last catastrophe. We have a national catastrophe every 20 or 30 years. You’re going to be the one in the driver’s seat with influence. When that happens, I want you to remember what happens when you allow fear to dominate your thinking.”