Students should not go back in person for the rest of the spring 2021 school year, but starting fall 2021 students should go back in person. There should at least still be an option to be all virtual there are only about two months of school left, some people are not comfortable with going back to school with the majority of the student body yet, and students are not learning any better by going into school.

For Wayne Hills we end June 22 whereas other schools either end sooner or about two days later. With that in mind, there is not enough time to learn a whole school years worth of work before the end of the year.

Not only is the school year almost over, but some people are still not comfortable with going back to school for the remainder of the year. A study conducted by The Institute of Disease Metrics showed that as many as 45% of staff and 33% of students could be infected in the first month. While that may be less than half the student body, someone who gets Covid-19 with all the sports and extracurricular activities can begin to spread like wildfire.

The learning environment right now makes it difficult to learn and students are not learning any better at school than they are at home. People argue that it is much easier to learn in person with the teacher and in a classroom setting. However, in the society we are today with virtual learning it is not necessarily easier to learn in person. Senior Heather Sarney commented, “From personal experience, I was in school in the beginning of the year and I have not learned any better than being virtual. My teachers would first talk to the people on the meet and then talk to the people in the room. The learning style was disconnected and I felt that I would learn the same at home while keeping myself and my family safe.” This only proves further why there is no point to going back to school this year.

As I have stated previously, I do not think it is beneficial to go back to school for the remainder of the school year. Everyone only has about a month left of school so it will be hard to effectively teach the students all the material needed. Not everyone is comfortable with going back to school yet. Yes, there are vaccines available to teenagers, however it is not that easy to get a vaccine yet since they are not readily available for the general public just yet. Students are not learning any better in school than virtual. Some students even have health problems which does not allow them to attend school in person so there will always be virtual students for this year. That means that the teachers will have to look at their computer as well as the students in person constantly throughout each class period throughout the day. Why bother going back to school for a month if you learn the same and not getting much benefit out of it?