Back to School COVID Makeover

The pandemic definitely affects what the upcoming school year will look like. Here is one high school student's take.

Article By Han Vu-Tran

As summer comes to a close and the school year nears, school administrations and district education departments are being bombarded with an abundance of questions on what the 2020-2021 academic year will look like amid the COVID-19 pandemic. As state governments and school administrators scramble to figure out a plan that ensures the safety of their students and staff, as well as continues to prioritize safe, distanced learning that would not cause a spike in cases, there have been many concerns. With the current pandemic striking people no matter their age or race, it is hard to figure out the right plan to go back to school. Especially one so set in stone.

Should kids continue distance learning, even though many kids found that it was not effective? Should they go back to full-time in person learning and risk a spike in cases? Or should students participate in a hybrid model that allows for both in person and distance learning? There are many aspects to this ongoing debate that should be considered. The main people in discussion are, of course, the youth. The school-aged children. Schools provide structure and social interaction for them and suddenly they are taken out of a place that they are meant to be almost 8 hours a day for 180 days and told that they will finish their school year virtually. It makes sense that kids are at the front of people’s minds when talking about the pandemic.

Most people argue that it would be relatively safe for children to return to schools due to the 0-24 age group being the group that is the least affected by the virus. They believe that this specific age group could contract COVID-19 and make full recovery with little to no problems. However, a study from South Korea shows that the 0-24 age group is just as capable of spreading the virus as older age groups. In addition, it is important to note that children are not the only ones in school. There are many people in the school building making sure that the school day runs smoothly such as teachers, janitors, administrators, and etc. These members of the staff and administration may not fall in the 0-24 age group, so they are just as susceptible to getting the virus as everyone else is.

While there are people like janitors and administrators in the school building, the adults that interact with children the most, during the school day, are teachers. They are essential to the function of schools, so it is just as important to include them in the discussions of how the upcoming school year will run. Most teachers are in the 30-49 year old demographic, making them much more at risk if they contract COVID-19. On top of that we also have to consider the amount of teachers that might be immunocompromised, meaning that their immune system is weak. So if they were to catch COVID-19 their chances of survival are lower due to having a weak immune system. Even if schools reopen full-time, many schools will give students the option to do their school year completely online. Will that be an option for teachers who are immunocompromised?

There are many pieces part of the puzzle that make up the solution of how the upcoming school year will work. Parents, teachers, administrators, local officials, and leading experts in epidemiology(people who are experts in how viruses and diseases spread). No one group is more important than another making this a hard debate to have since objectively, there is no right side. There are just as many valid reasons to reopen schools as there is to continue doing distance learning.

Many people would argue for the reopening of schools for many reasons, but a few are: learning online is not as effective as learning in a classroom, schools provide the much needed social interaction and structure children need in their daily lives, and many families that are disadvantaged rely on schools to keep their children fed. All of these reasons are valid and some of them are even argued by leading experts who encourage school reopening. We know that when schools suddenly had to transition to online learning, that transition was not very smooth. This rough patch was reflected in student’s answers to a junior achievement USA survey. The survey showed that most teens found their online learning experience to be very poor compared to regular, in-person schooling.

But on the flip side, there are multiple valid reasons as to why schools should not reopen. The main one is that the global pandemic is so unpredictable and without accurate contact tracing, schools can be busy hubs that foster a rise in cases. There are immunocompromised individuals who go to school and work at school, so reopening schools would be dangerous for those individuals. Even during a regular flu season, school is considered the breeding grounds for germs. Kids spread the flu like crazy, so it would make sense as to why people are cautious about kids going back to schools with the threat of COVID-19 higher than ever. Even if schools implement social distancing measures it is impossible to guarantee that they will be enforced by faculty and followed by students. As a result, going back to school could prove riskier than beneficial.

As a high school student myself, living with an immunocompromised individual, it is hard for me to pick a definitive side of this debate. I can see the strengths of both sides of the argument. I miss going to school and learning in a conducive environment, but by going to school I not only put myself at risk, but my immunocompromised family member at risk. Even though my school offers the hybrid model, which provides another option to think about, that option has been postponed. I was originally going to go back to school part time via the hybrid model, but due to recent events I will be starting my school year online. Even though learning online is by no means ideal, I have to agree with administrators on this because we have no idea if students will follow social distancing guidelines and there are still so many things to discuss. I personally do not want to complete my 2020-21 school year online, but I really do understand that it’s simply just safer for everyone to do so.

Sources

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