As the novel coronavirus and the ensuing lockdown spread around the world, people are having to make hard choices. For one father in Nanuet, NY, according to the New York Post, that meant turning away his spring-breaking son out of concern the boy might have brought the virus home with him.

Matt Levine is a 21-year-old student at Springfield College in Massachusetts. He and his friends decided to take their spring break in South Padre Island, Texas. His father talked to him every day, amid increasingly dire news reports of the virus’s spread. Meanwhile, Matt and his buddies were living their best lives, listening to music and enjoying the outdoors.

Except, of course, for those pesky cops. Matt told the Post that, four days in, the police had conspired to ruin his spring break. “We were only allowed to go to the beach in small groups and couldn’t have speakers; by then, there was basically no one on the island,” he said. “The police seemed like they were trying to ruin our good time.” (The authorities had reason to be concerned though, given how spring breakers have become a vector for the virus, carrying it back to their hometowns.)

Finally, with the beach shut down and flights being cancelled, Matt and his friends made their way home. His father told him they couldn’t enter the house: “His grandparents live here and there is no need to expose them to god knows what he had been exposed to!” said the dad, Peter Levine.

Peter may have been worried about his own parents, but he didn’t leave his kid totally adrift. When Matt arrived, he had a trunkful of groceries and $300 waiting for him—as long as he didn’t try to come inside. “They got out of the car [from the airport] near our driveway and I said, ‘Stay right there! Do not go any further!’” Peter told the Post.

Instead, Matt was sent on the on two-and-a-half-hour drive back to school, where he and his friends will have to live off campus for a few more months. “Their lease ends in June and none of the parents want them home,” said his dad. “It’s too risky.”

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