Emerging from Covid: How The Lockdowns Failed Our Children— Part 2

The impact of the post-COVID world on our children was far greater than we anticipated

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Our daughter attended her third school in the 5th grade

Her first year there was her most successful so far in her scholastic experience. Then COVID lockdowns derailed her social exploration, forcing her into an endless, government-mandated, prolonged solitary environment.

During that time in Melbourne, Australia, our children transitioned from being in school full-time to learning remotely, using Zoom, for almost nine months!

Our daughter thrived in the home-learning environment

She had few distractions in an online class and was protected from the social politics that ordinarily happen in every school lunch period.

When school returned to onsite classes, it took our daughter a little longer to settle in.

She had to readjust to all the usual classroom noises and discover a new routine that had not existed during lockdown.

It was only a few weeks back, and everything was going well.

She even fell into a friendly group of girls who seemed to accept her and all her challenges.

Homeschooling is not an option for my children, not on a permanent basis. I love them dearly, but I’m no school teacher, and I have zero patience when trying to teach someone something that I understand, and they don’t.

A post-COVID world

Many people have brought up an issue that society has faced since COVID-19: learning to live in a post-COVID world isn’t always easy.

We all had to navigate a new normal.

I know many people, myself included, who had difficulty readjusting to life outside of lockdowns.

It was as though social anxieties were heightened in everyone, and we all had a tricky time figuring out how to be in public and social situations again.

This was certainly the case with the children at school.

The World Economic Forum reported that:

- COVID-19 has left a lasting impact on education, with deficits in learning at all stages facing backlogs, delays and complex issues.

- The pandemic has highlighted the importance of well-being and human relations in learning, especially for its impact of student behaviour.

Many teachers sent emails to parents to explain that they noticed that many children were not the same as they were pre-COVID, addressing all the resources available to students whose well-being had been impacted by the lockdowns.

Rachel Silberstein reported in an article in the Times Union Publication :

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools throughout the region are seeing heightened behavioral challenges — fights, vandalism and general disrespect from students — raising difficult questions about how to best approach school discipline in times of crisis.

Educators say they are in a tough position; they recognize that disruptive student behavior is likely driven by a range of personal, academic and psychological challenges compounded by the ongoing pandemic, but teachers are also burnt out.

Naturally, nothing comes easy. It wasn’t long before our daughter’s friendship circle was demolished by somewhat minor squabblings that built up into much larger ones.

These girls didn’t understand how to communicate anymore, and as a result, our daughter was ostracised from the group of girls and left in no-man's land.

Unsurprisingly, our daughter, who has the inner strength of a thousand armies, picked herself up and did her best to make new friends.

Introducing Jay

In the aftermath of the issues our daughter had with her former circle of girlfriends, she became very close friends with a boy named Jay (not his real name).

Jay was also misunderstood and didn’t fit in with the rest of the cohort.

They became fast friends, spending all weekends hanging out, and it all seemed so wonderful until he moved to another school at the end of 6th grade.

Although they kept in touch, 7th grade arrived and, with it, brought a group of horrific bullies.

This time, a group of boys thoroughly enjoyed picking on the weaker members of the school, and their tool of choice was social media.

Our daughter was viciously trolled and bullied online. And then she was threatened with violence.

We made all the complaints and worked with the school to find a resolution.

There is no resolution to bullying.

The school was amazing (our other two children still attend there). They did everything within their power to support our daughter and our family.

However, the point came when the school principal called us in for a meeting to inform us that although she wished she could expel the entire grade level for their abhorrent behaviour, she simply couldn’t.

It was recommended that we leave the school and, with all her support behind us, find an environment where our daughter could thrive.

We decided a girl’s school was the answer

No boys would be around to distract her, and she had become quite anxious around large groups of boys. The school we chose also had an excellent support programme for neurodiverse girls.

My husband and I finally felt we might have found a place where our daughter was safe and could be happy.

Luckily, we didn’t abandon our strong feelings of needing to protect her because things went from bad to worse.

This time, it was not a school-related situation.

This is part two of a three-part article. To understand why I ended up taking a bully to court, continue reading part three: