Preps: Not the (Whole) Problem

By  Jeannie Eom ‘22

Generally put, people are not following our social distancing protocols. For some unfortunate reason, it has become trendy to ignore the rules, with social media being flooded each day with photos of people hugging, putting their faces together or physically making contact in one form or another. 

Whether it is done for intentional or unintentional purposes, it is difficult to excuse the mistakes that contribute to a public health crisis. On Oct. 13, 77 new coronavirus cases were reported in New Hampshire, 15 of whom were minors. This is yet another uptick in New Hampshire’s total—slowly but surely approaching ten thousand cases. 

Close contact has become more normalized: not just outdoors, but in indoor spaces as well. It is evident that initial nervousness about the virus has dissipated on campus. Designated bathroom times have gone out the window, and the intermingling of various dorm units has become more noticeable. The symptom checker each night is performed without care, and the sanitizing spray remains full and untouched on the bathroom vanity. 

Blame for rule-breaking has gone towards the underclassmen, particularly preps. Often, I hear upperclassmen claim, “Preps are never following the rules; they have their masks off and do not social distance at all.” Some underclassmen have been less sensitive to the rules, but I wholeheartedly disagree with the notion that underclassmen are more reckless and uncaring towards the community’s safety.

I arrived on campus on Sep. 8, a day before the official return of the upperclassmen students. Tottering in the jolty car ride onto campus, I was double-masked with a full seal facemask under a KF-94, drawn from the 190 masks I had packed in my luggage. My palms were sweaty under rubber gloves—on for over twenty hours. And my glasses never left my face, despite their troublesome presence during naps. 

Much of this nervousness was replicated on campus. Students were more than six feet apart—granted, the number of people was significantly fewer than there are now—and a sense of distress ensued any time someone accidentally broke the rules. When the first wave of students arrived the next day, the atmosphere remained similar. Students passed each other, curving, as if there were a ten-foot bubble around each person. You’d be hard pressed, to say the least, to see this scene now, particularly among underclassmen.

Why? It is not because underclassmen are inherently immature. They are not so unwise that they do not realize the potential consequences of their actions. However, the impression of danger has been weakly reflected since their arrival in October. Among other reasons, the impression of upperclassmen, myself included, has been partly responsible for this false perception. The positive outcome of a strict month allowed for a lax atmosphere to emerge in October. We did not relay to the underclassmen the raw unease that serves as a backbone of sensitive, conscientious behavior. 

However, we are not the only ones responsible for this false sense of invincibility. The present situation was able to arise due to flawed representation of the Academy on its official media.

Anyone following the @PhillipsExeter Instagram account has seen that students are not socially distancing at six feet—the most basic of the Academy’s new rules. There was an additional post made by Soule Hall that photographed upwards of thirty unmasked boys not sufficiently distanced—some were physically touching. The post was uploaded last week, and it remains on the account. It persists despite a thread in the comment section, supported by a number of people, that pushed back against the negative impression the post gives. 

Dorm communities showcasing these violations publicly is more than a brazen violation of our new community norms: it is also an indication of entitlement and of the leverage that particular demographics have over minority communities when it comes to accessing medical care. Moreover, it implicitly permits a continuation of rule breaking. 

And there has been both a lack of reinforcement and accountability in response to these actions. 

It is imperative that all members of this community understand that pointing an accusatory finger at underclassmen, at preps, is neither a thoughtful reflection nor a practical method to solve the problem. I do believe that preps and lowers have disproportionately broken the Academy rules, enough to create a generalization that “underclassmen are never following the rules.” However, understand that the underclassmen’s actions come from somewhere. They are an unfortunate byproduct of a broader atmosphere around safety norms, stemming from the rest of the community as well.