Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Governor Murphy ordered that all NJ schools be shut down by March 18th. Private and public schools are shutting down to hopefully prevent the spread of this virus. In order to keep classes in session, many schools have turned to online schooling. 

Still following the block schedule, each teacher in WHHS has to assign 40 minutes of work each day that the class would normally meet. These assignments can include new lessons or just normal classwork. 

“Online school is pretty good besides the fact that in some classes your teaching yourself completely new lessons, but other than that it is pretty straightforward,” explains Brandon Toback a freshman at WHHS. 

During the normal school day, students wake up very early for school from 5:30 AM to 6:30 AM. They also tend to go to sleep pretty late due to homework, studying and procrastination. Only 15 percent of teens reported sleeping the recommended eight and a half hours on school nights. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 70 percent of high school students do not get enough sleep during the school year. 

Online school allows students to have the freedom of waking up whenever they would like to. 

“I love waking up later because that means I won’t fall asleep at my desk,” states Mary-Elizabeth Boulos, a freshman in high school. 

Although so far there has been mostly positive feedback, some students find that there are some perks to our normal public school. 

“I miss being interactive with my friends during the school day, I also find it difficult not being able to ask questions when I have them,” explains Toback. 

For the first year in high school, freshmen feel that they are adapting pretty well to all the new changes the school has gone through particularly with the COVID-19 pandemic.