The Rev. John Bonavitacola does not agree with the return of 100,000 students to the Arizona State University campus in Tempe.

Maricopa County had been a COVID hotspot throughout June and July. The COVID-19 positivity rate had recently been trending down. But now students are arriving from around the country and the world for the fall semester.

“I have been assured that they will not raise the COVID-19 positivity rate in Maricopa County," Fr. Bonavitacola, pastor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in Tempe, Arizona, said in a letter from the church's Aug. 16 bulletin. "You might find that hard to believe. I did. It took some convincing. But it is true. Sort of. In an underhanded way only a state-run bureaucracy could come up with."

ASU has its own COVID testing program and lab. 

“Why is it that this taxpayer-funded university did not share their testing and lab with the community when we needed it most?” Bonavitacola asked in the letter.

Bonavitacola questioned the ASU chancellor’s right to declare itself “a self-contained entity” with no responsibility to report its test results to the Arizona Department of Health. 

“Just like that, ASU became Hogwarts School of Magic,” Bonavitacola continued. Hogwarts is the Harry Potter university that specializes in educating wizards. Since ASU does not have to report positive cases of COVID-19, the Arizona Health Department will record no new cases in Maricopa County from ASU. 

“Ergo, the positivity rate for ASU will be 0%," Bonavitacola said. "See, it really won’t increase the positivity rate in our local zip codes. Amazing. Viola! Magic. No virus at ASU.

“ASU claims they have a failsafe plan and that in the unlikely event that an individual should become sick, they will isolate the infected resident on their campus. ... But the problem is that not all students live on their campus. Thousands of students are interspersed throughout our neighborhoods.” 

Bonavitacola made it clear that he sees ASU as a culprit in the potential spread of the virus.

“When we see the virus start to creep up again in the Tempe/South Scottsdale areas, it will be the local residents that will be scolded for their reckless behavior, and put under lockdown with greater restrictions, but it won’t be ASU’s fault because remember their positivity rate will be 0%," Bonavitacola said in the letter. "Shame on the governor and the department of health for allowing this cheap parlor trick."

Bonavitacola also disagrees with the 'benchmarks' that the state health department has recommended for elementary and high school students. 

“[The 'benchmarks' document] concludes with the absolute necessity of children— not ASU students— wearing masks eight hours a day for five days a week for an indefinite number of weeks,” Bonavitacola said.

“This is the gobbledygook that schools have been wading through for months now," Benavitacola concluded. "It almost seems like despite the evidence to the contrary, the governor and the Arizona Department of Health really don't want in-person learning for our children to occur this year. ASU, however, gets a free pass despite the evidence of how their policies may affect the local residents of the East Valley.”