Kerry Schmid, dean of student life and athletic director at the Catholic high school for girls, coordinated the project. She explained that many students come from different parts of the Bronx, some even from Westchester, and that the project was a way for them to unite and feel a little closer to each another since the school closed on Mar. 13 following the statewide order.

 

“I saw on TV a lot of publicity about asking people why they’re staying home and I thought that that would be a way that the girls could get involved because we do have kids whose parents work in the health care fields,” said Schmid, adding, “We have kids who, they themselves, have immunocompromised issues”.

 

Indeed, as previously reported, about 40 percent of the City’s 20,000 children who end up in the emergency department, or who are hospitalized each year due to asthma, live in the Bronx, with black and Latino communities among the most affected. According to the National Institutes of Health, acute exacerbation of asthma can require ventilatory assistance. This could mean non-invasive ventilation or intubation using a ventilator, depending on the patient. Either way, it does raise more concerns about the capacity of Bronx hospitals, in particular, to cope with the current swell in COVID-19 patients who may also require ventilation.

 

Because of the high rates of asthma in the Bronx, a targeted youth program, which incorporated an educational element, was launched by the City last year in an effort to assist kids who have asthma to better manage their condition at home. It’s possible, therefore, that Bronx youth are more aware of the importance of reducing the burden on the health service than their peers in other boroughs.

 

As of Apr. 7, the number of positive COVID-19 cases in the Bronx was 15,348 according to the State Department of Health.

 

In the short video, students are seen holding various signs, and Schmid said it was interesting to see the message on each one. “Many of them mentioned a particular person; for my mother who has cancer, for my mother who is a nurse,” she said. Others were more unpredictable. “You expected them to say, ‘I stay home for my parents. I stay home for my grandparents. I stay home for someone who is ill,’ but some of them said, ‘I stay home for pregnant women’.” She doesn’t know if the students who said that actually had someone in their family who was pregnant, or if it was just a random thought about pregnant women being more vulnerable to the virus.

 

For one student in particular, the crisis has had devastating personal consequences. “We did receive word this morning that one of our 10th graders; her father passed away from COVID-19 this morning [Apr. 7],” Schmid said, adding that this was even more difficult because if the student had been in school, she would have been able to give them a hug, but obviously cannot do so under the current circumstances.

 

Patrice Athanasidy is the school’s media associate. In reference to the video, she said, “All of our students are required to do service hours as part of their graduation requirement so service is a part of our community every day, not just during these trying times”. She added, “St. Catharine’s has a long tradition. It was founded in 1889 by the Sisters of Mercy. We are blessed to have Sisters of Mercy continuing at the school today”.