Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Former Westtown principal guides Italian students and their families through pandemic
Former Westtown School principal Eric Mayer was at St. Stephen’s School in Rome, Italy, during COVID-19’s pandemic. Mayer urged calm in order to help his faculty, students, and their families cope.
St. Stephen’s is an Englishspeaking four-year, independent, non-denominational, boarding and day school. Currently, 295 students are enrolled. Mayer said that a third of them are from the U.S. a third from Italy, and final third from other countries.
“It’s not always easy,” said Mayer, 54, who has been the Head of St. Stephen’s since January 2014. Not only is he concerned for their welfare, but also for his former wife Deanna and their four children, Elsa, Jonah,
Jacob, and Peter who are in the U.S. Several of them wondered aloud if he should come home, but he felt clear to remain. His decision was no surprise to them because they know that shirking his responsibilities is not part of his make-up.
Mayer began teaching religion and woodworking at Westtown in 1994. When he became the school’s Principal from 2010 to 2013, he continued to teach Ethics.
During his sabbatical year in 2002, Mayer and his family spent nine months in Rome. Mayer was a sports coach at St. Stephen’s while Deanna was the school’s Dean of Students. That year they homeschooled their children.
“It was a great year, maybe the best of my life,” said Mayer. He loved St. Stephen’s, therefore when he learned that the school needed a new person to take charge, he applied for the job. Another reason was that he was looking for a new adventure.
When he moved to Italy in 2014, his biggest concern was the language barrier.
“On a scale of one to ten, my Italian is at a four,” said Mayer.
His biggest worry was getting into a car accident.
“I didn’t worry about getting hurt,” said Mayer. “I worried about the difficulty of exchanging information with the other driver and arguing in Italian who was at fault.”
When COVID-19 hit Italy this past February, his school had international trips in 7 different countries. Fortunately, all returned without incident, but this was clearly the start of something very serious.
“I trust public health officials because they tend to be right most of the time,” said Mayer. “I took this outbreak very seriously from the beginning.”
Unfortunately, numerous people in Italy took it lightly. In Milan, people were going out in groups and clinking glasses in restaurants. Eventually, people realized that COVID-19 was no joke.
On February 23, small towns hit by the virus were placed under quarantine. At the time, there were just 150 cases.
On March 9, all of Italy was locked down because the number of COVID-19 cases reached 9,172. As of March 27, Italy now has 74,386 cases and 7,503 deaths.
On March 13, St. Stephen’s switched to remote teaching and learning. Because his students returned to their home countries, Mayer had to set up
different times for them and his staff to work together. California was the toughest challenge because it is eight hours earlier there (Italy hasn’t yet changed clocks). While those students were starting their day, certain teachers were finishing theirs.
A tougher challenge is experiencing Italy’s drastic change. In one month, Italy went from being socially vibrant to practically desolate. Before, people were everywhere. They usually greeted each other by kissing on both cheeks. Just like here, the main form of contact was touching elbows. Now Mayer might get lucky and see one other shopper when he is at the grocery store.
“We now wear masks and gloves when we go out,” said
Mayer. “It’s like a dystopian movie, after some sort of global dislocation.”
Serious traveling restrictions are now enforced. He can only buy groceries at the store nearest his apartment. It is five minutes away. There is another store about 15 minutes away, which he likes more, but he is not allowed to shop there. Now when people go out, they must have government documentation that explains why they’re going to specific locations, otherwise the police make them go home. If he wants to run, he can’t go more than 250 meters away from where he lives. “Now it’s like running in circles,” said Mayer. “Instead, I use a stationary bike and I use exercise videos to help me work out.”
At the moment, he cannot have visitors, nor can he visit other people. Instead, he has to rely on video conferencing and the phone.
Mayer has to remain strong for his staff and students no matter how he personally feels.
“I tell them, ‘we’re strong and resourceful, and anxiety is unproductive,’” said Mayer. “I remind them to remain calm and seek creative solutions.”
He never tells them that everything will be OK.
“No one knows when things will get better,” said Mayer. For some of his staff, their predicament is almost unbearable. For example, this past month, one of his teachers lost her mother. (Mayer doubted that it was COVID-19.). The teacher was irate because she was forbidden to visit her mother in the hospital. “Only those who were terminally ill could have visitors,” said Mayer. Worse, funerals are currently prohibited in Italy so she cannot bury her own mother.
Mayer misses his family,
but while he experiences loneliness, some of his teachers have the opposite problem.
“Because of the lockdown,” said Mayer, “some parents are stuck at home with their small children 24/7.”
He also knows single people living alone who are stuck in their apartments without having terraces. “For them, it’s like being under house arrest,” said Mayer.
Mayer found other ways to remain emotionally stable. He only consumes 15 minutes of news in the morning and evening. “Anything more, and I’d be shellshocked,” said Mayer.
He also keeps a daily routine. Certain hours, he will clean his place. He also practices guitar different times during the day.
“It’s a storm, and we need the safest course and calm behavior,” he said.