With Oliver Ames High School’s announcement of a full return to regular school days, OA’s students have varying thoughts. While students have mixed opinions on whether or not they are looking forward to coming back, for those that did not opt for staying full remote there appears to be a few common concerns.
“I’m excited to return to some sort of normalcy for our final year together.” -Haley Gilman, Class of 2021
As expected, the biggest concern for many students is the lack of a transition between the set-in-place hybrid model and returning to school full time. This concern comes from both the students who are looking forward to returning to a full-time schedule, and from those who are not as eager.
“I am excited to have somewhat of a normal end to the year, but I feel like the school could have done a better job transitioning from the hybrid model” states OA junior Kimmy Peters. While on the other side of the argument, Abbey Querzoli a member of the senior class, “I’m not too excited because I personally believe going back to school full time with pretty much the whole school is too much too soon. Also, the seniors will be leaving not too long after.” Sophomore Jaden Graham shares this feeling of change, stating “It’s kind of different. We’ve been online now it’s a whole different way to approach school.”
The main reason for many students’ concern with transition is not only returning to school with almost the entire student body, but also returning to a full school day as opposed to the current model. Many students are not looking forward to saying goodbye to the 12:25 release model.
Senior Ennie Sorinmade explains that “the thought of going to school every day for 6 hours is overwhelming because of how much of a big transition it is going to be after only going for 2 days a week maximum for only 4 hours. Although I am excited to see everyone and have some sense of a normal senior year, even if it is only going to be for roughly 3 weeks.”
The duration of time the seniors will be experiencing going back full time is also a common theme when discussing the return. Even for the seniors who are looking forward for a glimpse of a normal senior year having less than a month of it is looking like a drawback.
“I’m excited to be with all my friends but I think it is a little pointless for the seniors considering we will be in school for about three weeks.” Says senior Carol Sullivan. Similarly, Sophia Campenella states that “going back to school full time will be good but I feel like it’s going to be pointless for the seniors because we would only be going back for around 2-3 weeks.”
Some seniors on the other hand are not looking forward to returning for their final month at all.
“Going back to school full time is making a bad year much worse, especially for the seniors.” Explains Ben Cohen. He’s not the only one that feels this way, Emma Harrington also a member of the graduating class explains that for her, it feels somewhat pointless for the senior class to go back for only 3 weeks and it is annoying that we go till the regular 2:25 instead of hybrid’s 12:25.”
There have been limited thoughts about the way lunches are going to work however as the students experience it there will likely be more thought given to the topic. As of now, the students understand that it had to be done this way but they are not looking forward to it.
Another member of the class of 2021 Chidera Akanegbu discussed the topic of lunch with, “I don’t really like the idea of ‘individual’ lunches but I understand that it is the only way to make lunch work”. Kaleigh Mendoza agrees, “I do not really like the lunch system, it seems like it is going to be very annoying to deal with.”
And finally, arguably one of the most valid concerns brought up by many people in the community: the matter of safety. With social distancing requirements in classrooms being dissolved and operating with almost the whole school present, many are wary about the school’s success at keeping COVID at bay.
“I’m going back but it feels like it is going to be unsafe if vaccinations for eligible students are not readily available -keeping in mind that the majority of students would qualify for vaccination by the time we go back to school full time.” Explains senior Ava Schwarz. Likewise junior Emily Kelley says “I really don’t want to go back to full-time school. I do not think it is safe to put so many people so close together. I think we will get a lot of cases quickly and get shut down.”