Odessa, Part 3: The Band Bus Quarantine

I was actually wondering if you would show me around your room a little bit.

There’s, like, a mess, literally. [LAUGHS]

It doesn’t have to be clean. My room is also not clean.

Yeah, it’s fine. [LAUGHS]

OK, OK, OK.

OK, cool. There’s my bed. That’s where I do my makeup and whatever. That’s it. That’s my room.

You’re like, you can look at the ceiling. I’m not showing you the floor. [LAUGHS]

Right there is a picture of the whole band from my sophomore year.

Over here is a picture of my quince. It was on my [INAUDIBLE] and my [INAUDIBLE].

I love it so much. [CHUCKLES]

I wanted to incorporate band because a lot of girls incorporate their sports and what they do. My cousin did softball. I did band.

What does that mean, the head drum major?

I’m the one that stands in the middle of the big podium that conducts. Everybody watches me.

It’s pretty cool because you get to get along with the whole band. You’re not just in one section. You talk with everybody. Band is just a family. I have so much love for everyone. It’s just — [LAUGHS]

You’re very proud.

Yeah.

Those were my friends. And it’s really sad because I caused them so much hate for no reason that I couldn’t really prevent. It really did hurt me.

So I had a normal headache in the morning. I was just like, oh, OK. It’s probably my stress because it’s the rivalry game and the biggest game of our season. So I didn’t think anything of it. And throughout the day, it kept on going. And I was like, it’s OK. I drank some medicine.

Good morning, Marissa.

Good morning. How are you?

Good. How are you?

Good. Running a little late. I apologize. [CHUCKLES]

Cute mask.

Yeah, thank you. [CHUCKLES]

Is that cheetah print?

Yes, I think so.

Cool.

I just throw it on. I don’t even know what it is. [CHUCKLING]

OK. Let’s go in.

All right. So things are ready to go. Perfect.

Put your mask on, please. Thank you. See, there’s, like, one in a bunch that doesn’t have their mask on. That was a handshake. You don’t want to handshake in front of the nurse. [LAUGHS]

That was too.

Here’s the nurse’s office.

We don’t even normally let anyone through the curtain unless they are sick. And they come straight through and go into our isolation rooms.

Could we go say hi to Jamie? I feel like we haven’t actually —

Yeah, for sure. OK. They want to talk to you and say hi to you.

I’m busy. Just kidding.

[LAUGHS]

Hello. Yes. Hello.

How are you doing, Jamie? How has the morning been?

It’s been all right. It’s OK.

Marissa gets here later than I do. We usually — I’m early. She’s late. And then I leave early, and she stays late.

Well, we basically just approach it as, don’t touch her. Don’t touch him. That’s basically it at the moment. It’s all we have time for.

I suppose pregnancy prevention is just social distance.

Yes, both with Covid and with pregnancy prevention.

Everything else we were doing as nurses has been put on the back burner this year. [LAUGHS]

[SPEAKING SPANISH] Hello.

I would say, my name is Jamie. I’m one of the nurses at Odessa High School —

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

— and I received an email from your student’s corral that stated that they had tested positive for Covid.

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

And then I would go through the dates and the last time the student was on campus.

Does she come to campus every day, or is she hybrid? Every day. So she’s been daily.

Yeah.

OK.

Were you within 6 feet for 15 total minutes in one day, any day, while you were on campus? And if so, who? And then, hopefully, they have names. Sometimes it takes a little investigating to get names out. So I would assure you that I’m not going to say your name. I have to call these kids and let them know they’re exposed, but they are not going to know it’s you from me.

So a lot of this is based on, you have to really rely on the kids telling you who they have exposed.

Yeah, there’s definitely a window where we don’t have eyes. And there’s just literally nothing we can do about that, in that regard. And that’s unfortunate.

I would say the first — up until maybe October, the first few months were very, very well-structured. We had a control on any cases or symptoms. We could isolate easy. We could contact-trace easily.

I felt like we were prepared. We just didn’t realize that we were not very prepared for how it was going to play out in the long run.

You know, the contact tracing is just so much that it’s really hard to keep track of now.

We’ve been a few days behind.

Mm-hmm.

And I think that’s when we realized, whoa, we’re losing grip on this.

Covid notification from 10/13/2020. Dear Odessa High School team members, I am sending you this message to let you know that two students here at Odessa High School have tested positive for Covid-19.

I am sending you this message to let you know that a student here at Odessa High School has tested positive for Covid-19. I’m sending you this message to let you know that three students here at Odessa High School have tested positive for Covid-19.

It’s already too late. It’s here. People are already passing it. So they’re just going to come back because they don’t know they have it yet. They’re not showing symptoms yet. So it’s never going to end.

Miss Jiminez, she’s out. She’s in quarantine because she took her dad to the doctor. He had a fever. Well, he tested positive, so she has to be out for the 14 days. But the sad thing is, her dad was just admitted to the hospital, I believe, yesterday. There’s another teacher who’s in the hospital for Covid, and she doesn’t look good. They had to go get her from the auditorium because she showed up to school, and she looks like crap. That’s the one who’s in the hospital now for Covid. I don’t feel safe anymore. I kind of had that false sense of security. But now it’s going away.

I don’t think we’re ready for that. I don’t think it’s safe enough yet. I really don’t. Hell, our principal tested positive, so how are we safe enough to bring everyone five days a week?

And I want to see them. I want to see them five days a week. Our pace will pick up. We’ll get more done. I’ll get to know them better. But I don’t think it’s safe. [SIGHS] I just don’t think it’s safe. We’ll see what happens.

It was, like, 20 people on our bus because we have, like, 12 French horns and then, like, six saxophones. I always sit in the front because I don’t like sitting in the back or the middle or anything. So I always get the front seat. And then there’s always the band mom that sits right next to me. And she always talks to me. I would always make conversation with them. And then halfway through, somebody was like, let’s play Among Us.

What did you play?

Among Us. Among Us. I guess you can say that.

How does it go?

It’s that one where it’s the imposter, and you have to figure out who the imposter is. No? [CHUCKLES]

Oh, oh. That’s a game you played on the bus.

Yeah.

For some reason, I thought Among Us was the jazz musician Charles Mingus. Anyway.

Everybody was by their — in their seats with their instrument — everything.

Got you. And how about masks?

Mask? It’s those neck gaiters that would slip off easily. I did wear my mask on and off. But I would drink water and just have it right here. I know that’s bad. But I just — you know what I mean? You have a little break.

Yeah. You put it under your nose.

Yeah. So —

Vianey Cepeda [INAUDIBLE] —

And like always, Vianey lost herself in the performance.

Everything goes away in my mind. I don’t know how to explain it. Whenever it’s the games, I didn’t feel like Covid was around. Games are normally fun and everything. And I didn’t really focus on Covid.

Right. It was a moment where life was kind of normal.

Yes.

Right.

I got on the bus. Nobody on the French horn section wanted to go out. They had other plans too, or their parents didn’t let them. So I decided to text my friend to go get food with me. And he was like, no, I can’t. I’ll tell you once you get home. And I was like, why can’t you? He was like, no, I can’t. So I was like, OK, I’ll just go get food and go home.

And then I FaceTime him at the drive-through. I was like, OK, what do you want? He’s like, I don’t want anything. I need to tell you something. And I was like, tell me. And he was like, I tested positive. And I was like, why didn’t you tell me that you tested positive? Because I was with him that week, and we spent a lot of time together. And I was like, you should have told me so I would have gone to get tested. So the next morning, I told my mom. And I was like, should I go get tested? She was like, yeah, of course you should go get tested. I go get tested, and I test positive. And I’m like, crap.

Hi. This is Marissa, the school nurse from O.H.S., and I was needing to get some more information regarding their exposures and positive cases. If you can give me a call —

Of course, this person notified her teachers, who notified me. And that’s how I found out she was positive. And then we find out this person was in band at the game, rode the bus to the game on Friday night. So then at that point, that’s when I started notifying my administrators. OK, this is bigger than we thought. This person was actually on a bus.

I remember her saying something about “bus.” And I turned around. And I’m like, mine was on a bus, too, you know what I mean? And we were like, oh, crap.

Is it too much to hope that they were on the same bus?

Right. Right.

Oh, crap. Now we need to find out which buses, who was on the bus. We talked to a couple of students, and we couldn’t get a clear picture of, how far apart were they? Were they all wearing masks? Students get on the bus. They start socializing. Maybe they even take off their mask. I don’t know. We’re not there, so we can’t say for sure, who were you with? Were you wearing your mask? Were you 6 feet apart? We can’t narrow it down, so we’ve got to do the whole bus.

I was upset, because it was going to be my last game. And there’s no more after that because it’s my last year. And I waited for so long for senior year.

This last football game really meant everything to me.

This game was really important because I was going to get recognized, and I was going to have my mom and dad there. And I get to look at my mom and see her smile. And I was going to get to hand my mom this beautiful rose. [SNIFFLES] I’m sorry.

I knew it was over. There was nothing I could do. And then [CHUCKLES] my mom — she argued with them and fought her way through it because they were trying to take away my senior year — my senior night.

Oh, really?

I was also in the band.

Actually, I was at work when they called me and told me my daughter needed to quarantine because somebody in the bus that she was in, or supposedly that she was in, had Covid.

There was a parent who I called. I explained that her student was exposed. She told me, no, she wasn’t. She told me that it was ruining her senior year, to which I apologized, because I understand that it is ruining senior year from a teenage standpoint. And that’s the biggest thing in your life, at that point, is your senior year and prom and football games. So we disconnected her phone call. She ended up calling me back in about 5 or 10 minutes to argue further that her daughter was on the other bus. And so then I explained to her, without giving you too much detail, there are actually two buses. There were two positive cases. And your daughter was on one of the buses with a positive case.

So I asked them if they knew which bus it was on. Are you sure you can’t find out which bus it was instead of just assuming? Because we need to make sure.

She said, well, do you know which bus? And I’m not going to sit here and talk about bus numbers and time frames. She was on a bus for 30 minutes with someone who is positive. She’s exposed, and she can’t be here.

And I said, is there anything else that we can do if she has no symptoms? They said, no, she has to be quarantined for 14 days. I said, there’s got to be something else you can do to accept her going back so she can do her senior-night game. Finally, after arguing with the nurse, she finally said, she can get tested after seven days, but it has to be a P.C.R. test. And if the results come back negative, she can go to the game.

So we disconnected that call. And then she called me back a third time. And now you understand, Marissa and I were in the dead middle of quarantining — what was it? 49 students and a band director. That takes hours. So the third time she called me, she began to argue again, and I stopped her. And I said, ma’am, I don’t have time to talk to you about this again. You can’t argue out of it. She cannot be here. And she hung up on me.

And it didn’t stop there. I think that was the most frustrating part. She also went to the principal.

Well, I did have to talk to the main principal because it’s like, they weren’t trying to help these kids understand that you can get testing in seven days. They weren’t trying to reach out to help these kids or try to get them back into school. These kids are already losing out on the way they should be learning. And they just had this mindset that, quarantine 14 days. That’s it. Do you know what I mean? Not even trying to help to get these kids back in.

I don’t necessarily disagree with that parent. I am also a parent of a kid who goes to Ector County Schools. And he needs to be in school. I guess the only argumentative statement I will make is, we are doing this because we want the kids here. And we are ignoring our kids and ignoring our family, putting my life on hold to contact trace during a pandemic so that their kids can safely be on campus. And that would be my only argumentative statement.

Mm-hmm. It’s crazy. They have a lot of kids. They really do. But maybe CISD needs to consider hiring some more people to help them. So I understand their frustration. But at the same time, you have to look at their kids, too.

I don’t know. I think these kids are just ready to be back to normal.

I actually had a situation with a parent last week where she unloaded on me. And I turned around and unloaded back on her. Because it had just reached a boiling point. I could not contain myself. She went on to tell me how she’s not happy with us. I’m not happy with you, she said. She goes, you’re not doing a very good job. And it broke me. It broke me. And I stood up out of my chair. I told her I did not appreciate her attitude in a very loud voice. And I slammed the phone down and hung up on her.

It was very overwhelming. And that’s working around the clock to keep it off campus. And it’s overwhelming because I’m already behind from yesterday. And now I’m behind from today. And I know, as soon as I get to work tomorrow, it’s just going to start over. And I’m just praying for it to be Christmas break. Just come on. Come on, December. We need you. We need a break.

I first walk in. Everybody looks at me. I was like, OK. It’s normal, I guess, because I had come back from having the virus, you know what I mean? And then right before I enter the band hall, there’s two trumpet players talking about, oh, did you see Vianey is here? And I just walked by it because I didn’t want that to bother me. I walk into the band hall, and somebody screams, corona. Everybody, put your mask on. And I was like, OK. You all are being rude for no reason. And I was like, it’s OK. I tested negative. They don’t need to know that. And then I posted on my Twitter. I was like, why does everybody gotta be in my business? Because it was really bothering me that everybody was talking about me, because I don’t care when people talk about me. But when it’s something that I couldn’t control getting, it really bothered me. And then one of the guys tweeted something rude, that, like, you’re so selfish about yourself and all this and all that. And I was like, where is this coming from? I’ve never done anything to you. I tested negative. And I was like, OK, it’s whatever.

The trumpets — they made a whole group chat just talking crap about me. And it really did hurt me because some of my good friends were in that section and my own family members in my section talking about me. Just the things that they were saying in that group chat really did affect me.

Can you read what they said? Do you have it?

Yeah. OK.

Somebody said, “I’m going to be straight with you. We don’t want the drum majors at the game.” And someone said, “She could have prevented getting it, so it’s her fault.” And someone said, “How? Yeah, for real. Mask. You said it yourself that she told you she refuses to wear her mask.” Somebody said, “You cannot defend her careless actions.” And then someone was like, “It’s the guy’s fault because he didn’t tell her that he had it.” And then someone said, “Too bad. It was still irresponsible of her to attend rehearsal today. What was the rush? It’s not like we needed her there. She just wanted this attention. It’s people like her that ruined this year.” And somebody else said, “If my best friend and the horns can’t play this Friday, she cannot direct us. I refuse to be under her direction.” And they made a meme out of me. So —

Oh.

And then there’s more, but I don’t know where it’s at.

That’s all right.

So —

What is it like for you to read those things there?

It hurt me because those were my friends. And them talking all that — that I couldn’t control — it really did hurt me because it was a family. I really saw it as a family. Sometimes I’m like, should I get out? Because I don’t see the point of being in band anymore, since it is my senior year and we’re not going to go to any competitions. So it’s like, should I get out? Because nobody even talks to me.

It’s like the coronavirus didn’t just take away your senior year. It took away your friends.

Yeah. It was sad because it was my whole life for four years — three years. It’s like, I would always look forward to or something. Sorry, I’m crying.

That’s all right. It’s all right. It seems like it’s really painful.

It is because band was my world. And I was happy. I was at my happiest there. They’re my best friends. I didn’t have no one to talk to from band. And how much effort I put into band, that hurt me. So —

I’m so sorry. This has been a really painful year.

Yeah. But it’s OK. It’s what’s happening right now. So —