by Aidan Millar-White and Felicia Keg
COVID has taken about a year and a half of regular living and turned it into social distancing, masks, and hospitals. Coming back from such drastic changes is certain to have effects on students and teachers back to in-person school.
What specific things have been changed in how kids learn and teachers teach?
Minarets teacher Katie Morgan has come back to school fully vaccinated as she is immunocompromised. Early in the year, as COVID became a huge topic, she had her worries because of her condition, systemic sclerosis. Lockdown was taken seriously within her household, such as limiting interactions with family and friends, limiting how much they went out to get groceries or to eat out, along with masks and hand sanitizer for everything. Systemic sclerosis is a disease where the immune system attacks itself, which causes an overproduction of collagen, ends up building upon organs, skin, etc. COVID could do much more damage as her organs are already weaker and her immune system is altered due to her medication. With these conditions, school can be troublesome, but the vaccination seems to have made her life a lot safer.
“It was a huge relief when the vaccine was approved and I was able to get vaccinated,” Morgan stated.
When Morgan was asked about her views on going back to in-person school, she said that she thought in-person is the better option. Morgan was reminded throughout online school that teaching was not for instructing through a screen, but in person.
”I definitely appreciate seeing my students every day and being able to have those in-person interactions that you can't have online,” Morgan said.
Minarets teacher Mikendra McCoy has put that social distancing has been done as best as it can be, desks are as far apart as they can be. Last year, Minarets split kids up to reduce risks at the time. Kids with last names starting with A-K attended school Tuesday and Wednesday, while kids with last names starting with L-Z attended school Thursday and Friday. Mondays held Webex meetings, switching from odd and even schedules. This year, Minarets returned fully with students attending school every day and was able to listen the social distancing within the classrooms.
As students and teachers return to school, new rules and regulations have been established to ensure the safety of Minaret’s student body as well as its staff and teachers. For example, masks are to be worn indoors at all times, and all teachers are to be vaccinated and tested for COVID. Unfortunately, there are many students who are not adhering to this new rule. Many students are wearing their masks beneath their noses or not at all. This has resulted in many getting COVID and having to stay home from school for a minimum of ten days. Within the first two days of school, two students were already out with COVID. The current number of students out has not been disclosed to the student body, but everyday people are noticing empty chairs in classrooms where their fellow classmates used to sit.
The teachers and staff have had meetings about this and have told students that they’re going to be more strict about the mask rule and that the rule will be enforced, or students will receive consequences. However, even after being told that, many students have ignored it. The official protocol is that if they need excessive reminding to put their mask up, they can be sent to the office. If they still don’t comply, they may be sent home. Though, after talking to one of the teachers, one may learn that no one has done this yet.
On the buses, masks are also required, but not always used. Students seem to think that masks are optional, which, in practice, isn’t entirely false. Teachers and bus drivers have been telling students to put their masks up, but without consequences to actions, masks might as well be optional. That’s why, recently, the buses have started using a strike system. A strike counts as not wearing your mask (it’s unknown if that means wearing it correctly or not). First strike, a warning. Second strike, suspension from riding the bus. Third strike, permanently banned from riding the bus. This new system is to try to get students to wear their masks so Minarets can stay open and in-person.
Because of the political issues around masks, trying to enforce them has been difficult. According to Morgan, “It’s like a dress code. It’s hard to enforce it if everyone isn’t on board,” which is unfortunately very understandable.
When asking students about their thoughts on COVID, the question of whether or not they thought Minarets would go back to online learning emerged.
“I think that school might go back to online. I feel that we’ve had a lot of people either exposed or get COVID, so that might trigger a reversal to online again. I think this might occur as soon as next month if we don’t ramp up the effort to wear masks indoors and get vaccinated,” senior Kale King explained.
This opinion is valid. With the increased caution around COVID, normal sicknesses like the common cold are treated like they were COVID until the student gets tested and is confirmed negative. This causes many students to miss class and do online schooling from home anyways. With how many students are out of school, either with COVID or a cold, faces are disappearing and reappearing from classes often.
“I would like to think that we will not go back online, but I’ve already made a bet with my sister that we’re gonna go back online by mid-October,” senior Jolene Anderson proclaimed.
Anderson and King were asked about something good that came from quarantine and online schooling.
“One good thing that came out of quarantine/online school was a focus on my school work. With less social distractions (sports, clubs, etc;), I could really focus on the quality of my work and had more free time,” said King
“Ummm, I care more about my mental health,” Anderson joyfully stated.
Many others stated the same, but with the delta variant spreading, some have argued that school shouldn’t be back in session with the new variant going around. Anderson and King shared their thoughts about this issue.
“I think that online hurt too many students to stay online, but I also think school is a large source of germs and transmission. Basically, it's a risk that we take to give the best to our students,” said King.
“Um, I don’t like it because I have a lot of anxiety, and I have a lot of people in my family who are, like, really vulnerable. But, ya know, I need the grade,” Anderson said.
Both explained how their academics fared both in online and in-person schooling.
“I went through a little rollercoaster in online school. I started strong, then got complacent and behind a little bit, but I finished strong with all A's. With school coming back, I haven’t had the opportunity to get behind, so I am ahead if anything,” King voiced.
“Okay school online was a lot easier, because I can do everything in like thirty minutes that at school I have to spend thirty minutes just sitting in a classroom waiting for the rest of the class to catch up,” Anderson noted.
Regardless of difficulties that come with face-to-face learning, many are eager to see what this year brings.