By Kate Hedger | Student Life Editor
October 25, 2020
There has been non-stop talk for months about what school would look like with the hybrid model. People questioned if the school would be able to enforce masks, keep students at a safe distance all day, or even pull off having students in person in the first place. After all the anticipation, students were finally let on campus last week, and we now have answers to our questions. Students have been begging for months to go back to school, but once they were finally given the chance to return, a shocking number of people chose to stay at home. Teachers and staff are left wondering why so many students are choosing to switch back to online after months of students looking forward to a return to school.
There are plenty of reasons why people have been switching to 100% online after experiencing the new hybrid model at school. A lot of people feel like school isn’t very safe even though temperatures are being taken and masks are enforced. These students know it’s inevitable that people get within six feet and masks are pulled down every once in a while, which can be a risk some students expose themselves to. There are also concerns about the accuracy of the thermometers, with some giving all students in a class the same temperature. Overall, students don’t feel like school is a reliable and safe place to be in a pandemic, even with new parameters.
“My parents and I are nervous about getting COVID and we feel it’s better to be safe than sorry. There are just so many people at school that it is hard to manage a safe distance,” senior Raiki Nishida said.
The reason most students were excited to go back to school was for the social aspect, but that interaction is really only possible to a certain extent. First off, school is split between the gold and blue groups, so people are not guaranteed to go back to school with their friends. For people whose closest friends go on different days, it’s a no brainer to stay home. Even if you do go to school with your friends, you can’t sit near them at lunch or in class. A lot of high-schoolers have started hanging out with their close friends over the past few months, so they have been within six feet and have likely interacted without masks. It’s frustrating for a lot of students to have to be distanced from people they already see, so a lot of them opt to just stay home and invite a friend over to do school with them.
“I switched because all of my friends were in the other group and in the hybrid model it is impossible to meet new friends because we are all so separated. I would rather just sleep in and attend online if I won’t be socializing at school,” senior Cammie Reeves said.
For many students, the main reason for returning was to learn in-person instead of through a screen. Sadly, just because we’re back in school doesn’t mean the work is back on paper. A lot of students feel that if their teacher is already going to be teaching to a group of all online students and all the work is still going to be online, there is really no difference between learning from home vs. in the classroom.
For a lot of students, staying at home to do school is the new normal, which makes them hesitant to the change of the hybrid model. For years we have been forced to go to school for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week with almost no exceptions. For the first time ever, we can stay in the leisure of our own homes to learn. For a lot of students, it is a dream to be able to finish class and then enjoy your break in their own living room or watch a TV show on the couch during lunch. The pandemic has brought a lot of challenges to our lives, but for some students, it has brought the once in a lifetime opportunity to learn from the comfort and safety of their home.
Great article