Notre Dame hires security to make sure quarantined students don't leave home

The University of Notre Dame has taken new measures to ensure that students who are supposed to be in quarantine remain in quarantine without disruption.

According to the South Bend Tribune, after some students were caught breaking the school’s new COVID-19 guidelines and leaving their quarantine or isolation location, Notre Dame hired security to specifically monitor students in quarantine.

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The university contracted the new security personnel from the Monterrey and VSS Security groups to keep an eye on the quarantined students around the clock. It is also partnering with the Indiana State Police Alliance, which will have troopers keep watch overnight until 3:30 a.m.

University spokesman Dennis Brown told the South Bend Tribune that the specific localities of the security will be based on each property they are assigned to and that the officers are monitoring to see if students who are under quarantine are leaving their rooms. He also added that for those who do violate the guidelines, a disciplinary process will begin.

Allegedly, those living in the university’s newest building received a letter that security measures would increase in their building due to the number of complaints of students going out against the school’s coronavirus guidelines.

One student, Megan O’Gorman, a junior who has been placed in quarantine, told the South Bend Tribune that she had to wait eight days to hear back that she tested negative and that the instructions given to her were unclear. 

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Notre Dame College Republicans President Adam Morys told Campus Reform that the group recognizes the school has an interest in mitigating the spread of the coronavirus, but that it should try to do so in the least intrusive way.

“We recognize the authority of the University to regulate the behavior of students and isolate those who are sick in order to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. A natural corollary of this authority is the power to enforce these measures,” Morys said. “The school must always seek to implement its measures via the least restrictive means possible. Given that we are not privy to much of the information regarding the behavior of the students allegedly violating quarantine restrictions, we defer to the school’s judgment and trust that the school will come to the best decision on the facts at hand.”

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