Despite most college students being at very low risk of becoming seriously sick from coronavirus, much less dying from it, colleges across America have implemented extreme, often prison-like, restrictions on campuses in the name of countering coronavirus. These restrictions can make college a drag. The restrictions even can put students at risk of serious injury or death arising from a fire in their dorms or other campus buildings.
A Thursday article at Spiked discusses two instances where colleges, one in America and one in Great Britain, advised students to follow, when evacuating a building, rules supposedly designed to reduce the spread of coronavirus even though doing so could put the students at greater risk of death or injury. The article points to Manhattan College in America advising students to “social distance” when evacuating a building and the University of York in Britain advising those students who are required under coronavirus rules to self-isolate to “‘stay in your room for one minute’ if fire alarms go off, allowing those who are not self-isolating to exit the building” first.
Oh brother. In a supposed effort to protect students from a way overblown threat from coronavirus that is unlikely even to be transferred due to close proximity of people in the short amount of time it takes to evacuate a building, colleges can put students in real danger from fire.
As long as universities keep up their coronavirus restrictions nonsense, they could at least advise that, when students think health or lives are in danger — from fire or another threat, students should disregard all the coronavirus restrictions that could impede acting to protect themselves and others. That direction would be in line with really seeking to advance students’ health and safety.
