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How a Catholic College Narrowly Avoided a County-Imposed House Arrest Order
Catholic World Report ^ | 9/12/20 | Stephen Mirarchi

Posted on 09/14/2020 6:55:14 PM PDT by marshmallow

The strange and often troubling story of Atchison County, COVID-19, and Benedictine College.

Nearly 2,000 students at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, woke up on Thursday, September 3rd, to startling news: in less than twenty-four hours, all of them would be confined to their dorm rooms for at least the next two weeks. They would be allowed out of their rooms only three times a day to procure food. Any other movement outside of their individual rooms or, in some cases, suites, would be a violation of a county-imposed order that would go into effect that evening at midnight.

Besides being taken aback at the chilling expediency of the order, many students were disheartened because of how many sacrifices they had already made in order to attend in-person classes at Benedictine. The college had expected them to quarantine for two weeks; to be tested for COVID-19 upon arrival; to practice social distancing and follow masking mandates; and, in what was a particularly poignant source of grief for many of them, to accept a far more restricted sense of community than they had come to expect of this small, residential liberal arts college known for its long-lasting bonds of fraternity.

True, some students had not exercised prudence since they had arrived on campus some weeks earlier. The county had evidence of community spread that they could trace to at least two students’ activities. Some off-campus events had not exactly been models of community-sparing sobriety. And a few students had been openly challenging the masking and social distancing standards, especially when traveling beyond the borders of the campus.

The county had intervened on August 28th with serious concerns and the threat of a quarantine order. Benedictine College promised to put even more stringent practices into place. In a rare departure from his........

(Excerpt) Read more at catholicworldreport.com ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Religion & Politics
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1 posted on 09/14/2020 6:55:14 PM PDT by marshmallow
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To: marshmallow

Fascists..


2 posted on 09/14/2020 6:59:30 PM PDT by Paladin2 (need)
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To: Paladin2

My $0.02? Article has the wrong take. Rather than be angry at the county bureaucrats egregious overreach .... the author is relieved that this school presented its case and was allowed to exercise its right to free movement and association by a beneficent government authority.

I’d be livid, not relieved.


3 posted on 09/14/2020 7:13:29 PM PDT by wbill
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