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Original poster

Why are we okay with students being locked up in their dorms?

651 replies

JKRowlingIsMyQueen · 28/09/2020 19:05

I just heard about the students in Manchester who are not allowed to leave their dorms.

Why on earth is this allowed to happen? So the rest of us who are not students are allowed to get pissed in a pub, get on a plane and travel abroad and back etc., but if you are a student you are not allowed to LEAVE your dorms?

What science are these kind of rules following? The science of Boris needing more ammo to blame young people for spreading the virus?

I'm losing hope.

OP posts:
randomer · 28/09/2020 20:51

@XingMing, no they are not all floundering snowflakes, neither are they all 21 year olds who have worked for years. Woop do do for you and your offspring.

There will be a lot of vulnerable, confused young kids trapped and scared, But it would need some empathy to grasp that.

Dustballs · 28/09/2020 20:52

not all students are gently reared gels who need protection

@XingMing They're not, you're right. But even you must realise that all people are different. All children are different. Some will be maturer and more independent than others. They will all have had different lives and upbringings. Some will be securer in themselves than others.

Your son is lucky if he is one of the securer ones.

At that age - and when I'd just started Uni - my mum had just died. If I'd been locked in my halls for two weeks when I'd just arrived, it would have broken me. It took enough courage just to go in the first place.

cantkeepawayforever · 28/09/2020 20:53

I am blaming the government for encouraging return in person, as i think remote learning should have been allowed.

I am not blaming the government for the specific decision to lock down halls of residence that are the sites of very significant Covid outbreaks.

RufustheSniggeringReindeer · 28/09/2020 20:53

No, a household of more than 6 is just that - a larger household. It's the 'ingling in halls' that i am picking up on

Yes

When i say ds1 was in halls i dont mean in every single one...so he was indeed ‘mingling in halls’

Inkpaperstars · 28/09/2020 20:53

One lawyer has said that the students could legally rescind thier place and leave and demand all thier expenses back. I hope they do it en masse.

if that lawyer is right then as I suspected the universities are breaking the law, the ones involved at least. So in fact their is no govt or national policy to lock up students and they cannot legally be held against their will. I agree they need legal assistance and to leave under appropriate circumstances. Blocking fire escapes is absolutely unacceptable.

I have never considered any university to have its students best interests at heart. They are always out for their own interests. Pastoral care was zero when I went to university. There were some tragedies.

Mooballs · 28/09/2020 20:54

It is shocking. These will be 18 yr olds who are miles away from home for the 1st time. Some of them will really struggle with this.

RufustheSniggeringReindeer · 28/09/2020 20:54

Oh and when they rock up to get their keys...i should imagine there was ‘mingling’ there as well with hundreds of students moving their stuff in

Fannybawz · 28/09/2020 20:55

@cantkeepawayforever

How long are they isolating for? And why can’t they just be batch tested?! Nothing would stop me from going to collect my child.

But you can't have it both ways - they are either an adult, who has made their own decision - and therefore reasonably has to take the consequences (DS would be in this category - his course cannot properly be studied remotely). Or they are a child who you 'cannot be stopped from picking up'.

We will pick DS up IF he becomes too ill to care for himself but does not need hospitalisation. Otherwise, with his complete agreement, he stays where he is.

Nah. They’re young people, Many of whom will already have patchy mental health having missed out on life for the past six months. They are teenagers ffs.

I wouldn’t want my kids dealing with that In some claustrophobic flat... I don’t think it’s safe in any way. Also to add to that I’d want them with me if they were Ill

cantkeepawayforever · 28/09/2020 20:56

If I translate it to my own scenario:
I blame the government for opening the schools unsafely.

I do not blame the government for the specific decision that PHE makes if it says that my school must close today because of Covid cases.

The decision to close can be completely correct even if the strategy that opened the school was a complete disaster.

notevenat20 · 28/09/2020 20:56

No one seems to mention that the students could be studying during lockdown. That is why they went to uni in the first place.

RufustheSniggeringReindeer · 28/09/2020 20:57

@notevenat20

No one seems to mention that the students could be studying during lockdown. That is why they went to uni in the first place.
My sons lectures haven’t started yet
Dustballs · 28/09/2020 20:57

It is awful. I can't believe anybody could consider this a humane or sensible option. It is lazy thinking with poor planning.

I'm now into any conspiracy theory. It's very very hard to imagine that this could have been done on purpose ...

But it's also very hard to imagine that this is a mistake. So many people could see this was coming. There were warnings everywhere.

So why has it happened?

cantkeepawayforever · 28/09/2020 20:57

@RufustheSniggeringReindeer

No, a household of more than 6 is just that - a larger household. It's the 'ingling in halls' that i am picking up on

Yes

When i say ds1 was in halls i dont mean in every single one...so he was indeed ‘mingling in halls’

So did he meet with anyone outside his own 'household / flat', in a group of more than 6?
RufustheSniggeringReindeer · 28/09/2020 20:59

cantkeep

Im talking in generalities

Using his 7 person ‘flatlet’ (I suppose it could be called...dunno what its called) as an example

randomer · 28/09/2020 21:00

studying? How? they are locked in a crappy little chicken hutch on their own with no food and no interaction . Oh and no " lectures". Oh log on, and all your troubles will be over.

Can people really not see how absolutely evil this is?

Teddybear27 · 28/09/2020 21:00

No, I am not ok with this. This country doesn’t seem to know what the hell it is doing? On the one hand letting huge groups of people leave the pubs all at once but then locking up students? What the hell is going on in this country?

Pootle40 · 28/09/2020 21:00

It's an absolute disgrace. Poor young people being made scapegoats. Let's just get on with it aka Belgium. And don't get me started on the absolute waste of the minimal police time we have this country having to them breaking up 'gatherings' while the drug dealers, rapists, murderers and paedophiles carry on while we turn a blind eye dealing with an infection we can't stop. What is this twilight zone I'm living in

cantkeepawayforever · 28/09/2020 21:01

The point I am making is that if every 'flatlet' had kept to the rules - no meeting in groups of more than 6 outside the flat, and nobody else coming into the flat of 7, and only going to pubs etc in groups of 6 or less from the same flat - then the network of connections through which the infection can travel would have been sufficiently attenuated that only his flat need have isolated for a single case within it.

Mingling between flats and in groups of larger than 6 will have been what drove the spread outside those initial flatlet groups.

XingMing · 28/09/2020 21:02

All the remarks aimed at me are completely legitimate. But, actually, if you haven't babied your children through their teens, MOST (never all) should have developed the resilience to cope with a fortnight cooped up with their mobile phone for communication and their laptop for education and entertainment. DS didn't go to uni at 18, because he didn't know what he wanted to do. Now he does, is doing it, and is giving the manager of his hall (who is just 25) all the assistance he can with advising the younger students how to cope with the isolation.

Some people just want to find faults. Not that this is aimed @Randomer. Competence is learned; if you haven't managed it, it ain't because of me.

stovetopespresso · 28/09/2020 21:03

students being treated as cash cows, how much crap do these poor kids have to put up with this year? I'd be fuming if I was a parent, able to walk around in freedom, knowing that my child was imprisoned like that and being told they might not be able to come home for Christmas, so cruel. particularly bad in scotland I understand. totally isolated and uncared for.

mumsneedwine · 28/09/2020 21:06

The laws state you can meet with up to 6 people from multiple households. Why do students have to keep to a different set of rules ? And this is not about isolating if you've been in close contact with a positive case. Not sure anyone thinks that is wrong. But the rules are 2m for 15 mins or 1m for 5. Not nowhere near, ever.
But locking doors so students can't get out is illegal. Wrong. Disgusting. Police state. They have backtracked now as know they've made a massive mistake.
DD1s uni have cases and the support they have given has been amazing.
And my kids have worked all summer. One on covid wards holding the hands of dying patients and the other keeping your food on the shelves. They are not snowflakes and know the rules. But hey, they are students so deserve to be treated like crap. You clapped every Thursday to say thanks but now we just throw them on the scrap heap.

Tappering · 28/09/2020 21:06

They've been lied to and used to prop up Universities and housing income. The timing of only finding out that many courses would be delivered online, after they'd signed up for non-refundable accommodation, cannot be accidental.

They are being disproportionately affected despite the severity of covid in their age group being very low.

Jumpingkangeroo · 28/09/2020 21:06

[quote randomer]@XingMing, no they are not all floundering snowflakes, neither are they all 21 year olds who have worked for years. Woop do do for you and your offspring.

There will be a lot of vulnerable, confused young kids trapped and scared, But it would need some empathy to grasp that.[/quote]
No doubt the posters saying this will be the ones wailing on social media about mental health and suicides. Young people don’t matter apparently.

annabel85 · 28/09/2020 21:06

Students locked in like prisoners, yet how many checks were made on the hordes coming back from Spain straight to the bloody pub?

DonnaDonna01 · 28/09/2020 21:07

@cantkeepawayforever what are the government here for, the people? They work for us and to advise us what is the best for our democracy (apparently)
Therefore with the best scientific and medical advise they not only diid not stop the return to uni they actively encouraged it. Are you saying they weren’t advised this would happen and that this lockdown of halls and students having their freedoms taken away would ensue.
Please don’t blame the poor government they just didn’t know. 🤦‍♀️😂

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