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

[JKRowlingIsMyQueen]

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.

@jdoejnr1 student in Edinburgh got delivered a croissant and a mars bar. They are vegan. And MMU have delivered pot noodles.

I think - I may be wrong - that local public health have been involved when there is a decision to lock down a wider community - e.g. a hall of residence - rather than just ensure all contacts of positive case strictly self-isolate in accordance with the law.

@MarshaBradyo, DD is lucky as she gets on with the people in her flat really well. She is bored and they currently don’t have any food in the flat trying to organise food delivery but nothing yet. There is a security guard outside to stop them leaving. She has only been there 2 weeks. DD is at Exeter if there are other Exeter parents around.

@user1487194234

There is a huge difference between self isolating in your own home in your normal family unit and asking 17 year olds in a small room in a new city living with complete strangers to self isolate If people can't see that then I despair

This.

It is horrific what is being done to these young adults, and some of them will be under 18, so technically still children.

[quote MrsMcMuffins]@MarshaBradyo, DD is lucky as she gets on with the people in her flat really well. She is bored and they currently don’t have any food in the flat trying to organise food delivery but nothing yet. There is a security guard outside to stop them leaving. She has only been there 2 weeks. DD is at Exeter if there are other Exeter parents around.[/quote]
How are they managing for food? Are they literally being guarded to remain on premises without any food delivery?

@cantkeepawayforever can I ask if you lived in a block of flats and Mr Brown on the fifth floor had symptoms or a positive test would you expect the government to say “that’s it full block locked down - 500 of you isolate now. No warning just do it, would you be happy?

It's actually really likely to happen to me, as I work in a school. If there are too many cases, the whole school will be sent home to self-isolate - even if the positive cases are, like Mr Brown, remote from me.

Who do you mean by we? I'm not ok with it. I was actually just saying to my partner today that I feel it will effect the students from lower socio economic backgrounds hardest. Along with those who are first generation to go to uni in their family. Moving to uni is so scary and it won't take much for students to be put off. I know if this was happening when I started uni 15 years ago I would have definitely stayed at home.

But when you say why are we letting this happen what do you suggest we as the general public do? It should neve have got to this stage but we're here with the virus spreading so what can we do now?

Auntypasta I can’t imagine the medical centres are equipped to deal with the vast amounts of students currently locked up in their rooms.
I really hope I’m wrong but so many students have had such a battering to their mental health already this year.
University’s don’t even know these kids to know which ones they might need to reach out to

I'm not ok with it OP.

Measures and restrictions should be appropriate and proportionate. Many are not.

Including both parents not being allowed to be with their babies in SCBUs. Including 85 year old men not being allowed to hold the hands of the wives they have been married to for 60 years. Including low risk businesses having to close down because of perceived danger. Including dementia residents being alone and frightened and deteriorating because apparently 2 more years of just existing is preferable to living and loving.

[quote mumsneedwine]@noblegiraffe I agree. If a close contact tests positive you isolate. But what has happened here is a few flats have cases and 400+ people have to isolate. That's like saying I get it and my 400 nearest neighbours have to isolate. I've probably never met them.[/quote]
It seems far fetched but didn't this actually happen in Melbourne, Australia, where they locked down a few blocks of flats?

What PicsInRed and Stealth said. I'm stunned anyone thinks this is ever okay. Locking someone in is for fucking criminals. Listen to yourselves? FFS.

Yeah, so they can get food, they serve food in prisons, too. But you don't pay tens of thousands of pounds for that.

Fucking listen to yourselves! Think it can't happen to you and you'd just happily take anything they threw at you for the team? Bullshit you would.

This is bloody sinister.

It seems far fetched but didn't this actually happen in Melbourne, Australia, where they locked down a few blocks of flats?

Germany as well - countries that have got on top of the virus well have done so through what seems to cause outrage here.

@dingledongle

I am not ok with it and I hope these students remember this when they vote

I am not okay with it either. These poor kids, some away from home for the very first time isolated in their dorms and some of them not the most pleasant of surroundings and running low on food and supplies. The first years have already had their last year of college ruined and they're having to pay £££ for the experience. Fees and rents haven't gone down this year for what is effectively a correspndence course for many students.

I worry how it will affect the mental health for a lot of them.

Just another step towards a police state
They allowed them go back to appease rich landlords and corporations then fucked them over

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-53131941 Germany

Are any of these kids and young people actually even ill? As opposed to having received a positive test, or just feeling a bit poorly or off colour (something rather common when students return in the autumn)

Genuine question.

It seems far fetched but didn't this actually happen in Melbourne, Australia, where they locked down a few blocks of flats?

Yes people seemed ok with it on here posting from Aus, but that was extreme too.

I doubt we’d be ok with a block of flats here locked up with guards either.

Batshit is it illegal for them to leave, or is it a university policy ie. disciplinary issue. If it isn't illegal (and they are not required by national rules to be self isolating) then surely they must be allowed to leave if they leave the university? Not much of an option admittedly! Just trying to understand what legally is happening here.

There’s also a political issue here.

Universities enticed students to turn up this September. Why? Because if all the first years had deferred (as they would have done if they knew the reality awaiting them) the universities would have gone bankrupt. Bust. The only way to avoid this would have been for the government to bail out the entire university sector.

Why didn’t the government do this? Because it couldn’t afford to. It would have run to many many many billions. It’s a large sector.

Basically, there is no money to compensate people for the vast costs of lockdown. The government can’t afford to bail people & business sectors (including universities) out. This is why the university sector was kept open, & students encouraged to attend.

What happens if the government can’t afford to compensate people for their losses? People object. They’re angry. They disobey the rules. And they get locked up for it.

Locking people up, keeping them prisoner, is the inevitable consequence of shutting down society. Because we can’t afford to compensate people for their financial loss, we have to lock them up to stop them from rebelling. Detention centres, anyone? Barbed wire?

You can only do so much with social pressure when people see they’re losing their livelihoods and futures - the only way a government can enforce that, ultimately, is through totalitarian measures. With the students, we’re just starting to see what awaits us all if this goes on.

@cantkeepawayforever but will you not have family and friends around to support you? Get your food shopping, medical needs etc. These students are mostly on their own at the other end of the country to their family and friends.
Plus no disrespect but your being paid to work in a school, students are being charged to be put in this position.

DS is 15 days in to his first term at uni and has tested positive but should be released on Friday. He is also a bit older than most freshers, at 21, and is actively assisting the inexperienced manager of his hall with how things work already. His flatlet of four are down to two: one lass couldn't cope emotionally; another went for a home visit and has tested positive there, so there are just two left. He's unable to leave his room but is being kept fed by Sainsbury's and friends' deliveries. He is also not really unwell, and is looking forward to a beach walk and fresh air later this week.

As an observation, I suspect the real numbers are several times larger than are being reported. DS is at a very small uni, in a small town in a peripheral county.

Seriously folks, it was inevitable from day one. This is how herd immunity is built up. Better it happens among the young adults than in care homes, surely?

Even before the stories of locking the hall doors it was clear the great student migration was going to end in tears.

In my opinion students have been steamrollered into signing contracts for tuition and accommodation that were an accident waiting to happen.

Go and retrieve your young adults folks, deal with suing the financial institutions later.

I'm not okay with it at all. Locking fire escapes and wiping key cards, what one earth?! The young people of this country are being badly let down, I feel so sorry for anyone starting university this year

There were students being interviewed on radio 4 earlier saying that although they universities claim to have arrangements for them to have food delivery there are actually no slots available so they can't get did.