By Charlie Fitzgerald ‘20

All little kids get sick.

But have you ever heard of over 130 students getting sick in one school? The parish of St. Barnabas went on indefinite quarantine because of an unknown respiratory disease ravaging through the school.

As an active member of the neighboring parish, St. John Fisher, I’ve been able to get to know many kids from this parish. Some have siblings currently enrolled, like my close friend Henry Barsch.

“My family dusted and set up hand sanitizer around the house. Hopefully my little brother Danny stays healthy,” said Henry

The youngest Barsch has been luckier than most of his Barnabas classmates. St. Rita senior and Barnabas alumni Ryan Fidler has two brothers with the illness.

“My whole family is freaking out,” explained Ryan. “It’s hard to stay healthy when you live in close quarters with not one, but two cases of the outbreak.”

My sister and I were able to catch the noon mass at St. Barnabas last Sunday because of Confirmation going on at our local parish. To no surprise, my sister came down with a four day respiratory illness.

“I had trouble breathing and went through a lot of headaches,” Sarah said. “I wish I would’ve gone to mass later on.”

We don’t for sure know if the illness is related to the outbreak at the school, but the timing of it is quite eerie.

With school opening back up soon and the numbers of those affected dropping, I was able to speak with senior Ronan Dolan.

“It’s quite sad to see a glorious school come down with a sort of plague,” said Dolan. I have family friends and cousins who still go to the school, so I hope everything blows over with no further damage.”

Ronan brings up a stellar point. Although all this news is groundbreaking and so interesting, we have to remain aware that the age of the students can range from 4 to 14 years old and we must keep them in our prayers.