ASHLAND, Ky. — The only sound outside Ashland Blazer High School on a recent morning came from a halyard rope pinging against the flag pole. It’s the kind of background noise nobody notices most of the time, but it seemed invasively loud amid the prevailing silence.
On a normal March weekday, this school of 900 students would be a hive of youthful activity. In the new reality, it was a ghost town. The only thing happening here was health screenings by nurses, who were using the lobby of James A. Anderson Gymnasium to alleviate traffic at the local hospital in these unprecedented times.