I reported 2 months ago that Albion College was requiring all students to download a tracking device for their location and personal health data on their smartphones for the upcoming school year.

Albion College required students to stay within the school’s 4.5-mile perimeter for the entire semester.  If the students were to leave the 4.5-mile perimeter without written permission from the administration that the tracking device will alert the administration and the student may be temporarily suspended.

Who was exempt from the order of placing a tracking device on their smartphones, administration and teachers.

Who was exempt from essentially being placed under house arrest and confined to the 4.5-mile perimeter, administration and teachers.

Now exactly two weeks before the election WXYZ is reporting that the Washtenaw County Health Department, has issued a stay-in-place order for all U of M students as of Tuesday, October 20th, through 7 a.m. Tuesday, November 3rd.  Interesting, why did they choose Tuesday, November 3rd to end their lockdown?

Washtenaw County Health Department states that U of M related cases now accounts for 61% of the county’s COVID-19 cases.

The interesting part of their lockdown is once again teachers and administration are completely exempt from this lockdown/house arrest order.  How concerned must these health officials be if they are not including the thousands of people who work on the U of M campus and come in contact every day with these very same students that are under lockdown/house arrest order?

Also, there are exemptions and a lot of them.  According to reporting by WXYZ, they are:

Exceptions to the order include:

Students can attend in-person classes, including instructional labs.

Students can leave their room/residence to pick up food and other basic needs, attend medical appointments, pick up medication, vote or participate in election related activities at polling places, attend religious practice activities or to obtain COVID-19 testing.

Students can attend work with the approval of the employer, if the work cannot be done remotely.

Students who have clinical rotations, student teaching or other off-campus experiential learning assignments that are done in person can continue only with approval from the college dean and disclosure to the organization of placement such that both the school and site are aware and supportive of continued participation.

Students can leave their room/residence for physical activity outdoors in groups of no more than two.

Students associated with intercollegiate varsity sports may attend practices and competitions provided that athletic medical staff is present during the entire process, actively supervises the team’s COVID-19 mitigation activities during the practice, has the authority to suspend the practice if he or she believes COVID-19 mitigation practices require that result, and testing is conducted per governing athletic organizations (i.e. Big10) policies.

Sounds to me like they were looking for scary headlines leading into Halloween and the election.

Stay-in-place/lockdowns/house arrest orders for thee but not for me.

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