Navigating High School During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Powerless.

That is the feeling of going to school in the midst of a global pandemic. You take every precaution, but it doesn’t matter: nearly everyone around you doesn’t care. No masks. No social distancing. Nobody.

In 2020 our school district gave us the option to attend class online or in-person. About half of my school took advantage of the opportunity to stay safe at home, and the other half was required to wear masks, sit six feet apart in class, and stagger dismissal in the hallways. It was difficult, but distance learning was the right choice for me. Just a few months before the coronavirus lockdown began, my mother had a stroke and had to have surgery. Weighing the options, go to school and risk killing or severely debilitating my recovering mother, or stay home and work diligently to not get too far behind. For me, there was no choice.

This school year we were forced to go back in-person because there’s now a vaccine. With more students in the halls and less restrictions in place, positivity rates became higher those than in 2020. The school board finally came to its senses and instituted a brief mask mandate that students were allowed to opt-out of, but thankfully few did.

I’m a senior in high school. The last “normal” year of school that I had was freshman year. The next year was cut off early due to the virus. The next was entirely virtual. And now my final year is back in-person with a bunch of half-enforced regulations in place. My generation has gone through such a long period of adaptability that I don’t think life before Covid is normal. So are we sure life as it is isn’t our normal?

There wasn’t much that I or others like me could do to change our situation. We can’t vote. We can’t gain any position of power. Several students at my school including Grady Knox attended school-board meetings to get our voices heard. I sent letters to Governor Lee, Senators Blackburn and Hagerty, and Representative DesJarlais. Spoiler alert: none of the letters had any effect whatsoever. I didn’t expect a response from them, but it still hurts to have one of my only outlets of expressing my opinion voided.

And I know that I’m one of the lucky ones. I have had my fair share of obstacles so far in life, but I feel for those who have it worse. I have a mother that has always supported me. I landed in an amazing school with plenty of opportunities. Not everyone has these things.

We’re expected to make tremendous decisions that will affect us for the rest of our lives, but we can’t even make our voices heard. We will be the next politicians, lawyers, doctors, architects of the world, yet we’re constantly told that our opinions don’t matter and that we should focus on school work instead of currents events or public policy. Politics of today will affect our generation’s lives for much longer than those who are currently in positions of power. There have been many moments during the past few years when I had no hope at all for change. The government is slow and inefficient. Our means for expressing our opinions are null. But despite all of this, I know that there will be change. Not today or tomorrow, but when our generation is able to shake off the muzzle society has put on us, then we’ll finally see change.

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