As students return to school, will Covid cases go up? Things have been going well so far, Sentinel Highschool is the only school that has reported one new COVID-19 case.  Most states in the US have reopened schools, however students also have the option to participate in full online school.  MCPS schools have limited the amount of students in the building by half.  The students and teachers are required to wear a mask at all times.  Upperclassmen get to leave campus for a lunch break however, freshman and sophomores must stay.  In order to keep school in session, students need to follow guidelines and rules set out by MCPS so COVID-19 cases don’t increase.  Wearing masks and washing our hands often is just about the best thing we can do to keep everyone safe.

     There are many different opinions on whether or not it was a good idea to bring students back to school. I recently interviewed Clay Meissner, a parent of a Hellgate student, and asked his opinion on students returning to school. He said, “I believe that letting students return to school isn’t a good idea and that they will have to return to online classes within a few weeks to a month. Cases have gone up, and they will continue to go up if we do not quarantine.  However if students do go back to online learning I hope the teachers have prepared to provide harder assignments and tests than last year.”   

     I think that schools made the right decision by bringing students back, and I hope we can continue to go to school.  As a student, I found it hard to learn new things online last year.  The assignments weren’t as engaging, and both teachers and students were frustrated.  I know that math assignments were a lot easier for me, especially because I could use google if I needed guidance.  In class we don’t have the option to look things up so I did my best to understand the methods and assignments through google.  I’m glad to be going back to school because I get to interact with people face-to-face and I think Hellgate is doing a great job social distancing.  I was surprised that only a few other students were in my classes, I figured there would be more. One thing Hellgate could do better is enforce that freshman and sophomores stay at the school for lunch.  As the school year continues we will be able to determine whether or not sending the students back was a good idea.