Items

• 2020-03-13

  Living through A Pandemic

  I can clearly remember when the pandemic began and as it progressed. I was in my senior year of high school. Before we understood the magnitude of what was going on there was a general consensus that it would be over in a few weeks. There is a culture with the media that trends only last a short time and we move on as a society. We all thought this would be another trend. A few months later and many things were still shut down. I finished school online and got my diploma in my car. We wore masks everywhere to stop the spread and everyone kept hand sanitizer on them. I also worked in food service at the time which was considered an essential business. We got extra pay and had extra precautions to follow. A few steps that were put into place were timers to wash hands at least once every 30 minutes. When masks started to be required they were sold out. I made a makeshift mask out of hair ties and a bandana. Soon Covid-19 tests became widely available and that created individual quarantines. People would test every time they came in contact. In the beginning, people were worried about paying their bills. Both of my parents owned small businesses. We had to sell our home to scrape by. As time passed the country made accommodations to open businesses up again. Two years later and we are still majorly affected. Now we are affected by product and labor shortages. Often grocery stores are out of certain products. However many businesses created contactless services such as grocery pick up, and delivery became more widely common.
• 2022-04-28

  Covid

  It may be neccessary to inform the reader that the following reflection was writing in the spring of 2022, at the end of the ‘pandemic’. The pandemic had began initially with my graduating from high school in the spring of 2020. Disappointed at not having prom or a real graduation ceremony, I prepared for college and ended up taking a gap year. The lockdown and safety measures enforced by the government and institutions around the country jointly impelled me to take a gap year. It was during this time that I began reflecting on life without social interaction, entertainment and structure. Perhaps the most apparent realization was coming to terms with the abnormalities wrought by the pandemic such as the lockdown and vaccine rollout/enforcement. The lockdown in particular, was quite pernicious. It prevented myself from going about daily errands and activities. Spiritually, I found comfort in reading scripture to cope with the deficit of worldly pleasure in my life. This was ultimately a good thing because it brought me closer to God. However, I was distanced socially from my peers and friends darkened my view of life and increased my pessimistic outlook. Man is religious because man was created by God. A lot of people dont find God and thus the suicide rate spiked durning the lockdown, damning many souls to eternal hellfire.
• 2022-04-28

  Growing up with COVID-19

  I wouldn’t consider my experience during the COVID-19 pandemic unique. What my experience was was life-changing. I was a graduate of the class of 2020 which was the first graduating class during the pandemic. What was unique about my situation was that I graduated in December 2019 a semester earlier than I was supposed to. I got a last day of high school, I’ve got a last football game, I got my last class. I think this is different because many people in my graduating class didn’t get these things they left for spring break in March and came back to their freshman year of college. I’m definitely grateful for the decision that I made to graduate early. Even though I didn’t understand the decision that I was making at the time I got to live more lasts than most people my age. Going into freshman year of college was difficult without walking across the graduation stage. We are taught that that is the moment where you become an adult and a member of society. It’s the closing of a chapter when you walk across that stage. With all that closing of the chapter I felt like I was just rolling through the motions coming to college. Even though it was just rolling through the motions they were the best motions of my life. Freshman year I rushed my sorority on zoom. This was the first time A zoom rush has ever been conducted and there were definitely some learning curves associated. I did end up finding my place within that process but I couldn’t be more grateful that it didn’t work out for me. I went through freshman year with the best friends I’ve ever made in my life and I would’ve met them without my decision to come to ASU. Coming to ASU almost feels like a fluke, I wouldn’t have committed to come here if Covid hadn’t happened. It was the only school that I had a chance to tour therefore the only one that I had enough knowledge about to make the decision to attend. This was the best thing that came out of corona.
• 2022-04-29

  Covid Impact

  Covid has had a huge impact on everyone throughout these past two years. Many people lost their lives, jobs, and it has impacted people mental health. Living through covid hasn't been easy for many of us we went from living our day to day life and all of a sudden a virus was infecting the whole world and we were stuck in quarantine. Personally this had a huge impact on my mental health i felt like i was going crazy being stuck all day inside with nothing to do. Not just that i was stuck with all my thoughts and feelings that i was avoiding and now they were all there with me making things harder for me. I would typically have some sort of distraction but at that moment i had none. My motivation for school decreased heavily i wasn't able to learn good through a computer screen although i did like just waking up 5 min before class started. When covid started i was a junior in High school and i thought by the time i was a senior and graduating it would all be done but i was wrong. Its been two years now and it is still a thing. It does suck knowing i missed the last half of my high school years i didn't get to experience all the fun senior activities but the thing i am grateful for is i did have a graduation ceremony which at that point is all i really wanted. Recently things have been slowly going back to "normal" and i feel like many of us have gotten used to this.
• 
  2022-04-29

  Life in The Pandemic

  The story I have uploaded goes over my own personal feelings with the pandemic. It is important to me because although being in a pandemic is negative, I feel that I have really grown and been shaped into the person I am today because of it.
• 
  2021-08-21

  State Champions

  Before the shut down my junior year of high school, our soccer team had won the state championship. This memory is one of the best experiences of my entire life, but was drowned out by the pandemic. When we returned to school the following August, we were granted our state championship rings--- with a twist. Everyone was in masks, and due to social distancing each player only got to bring 2 family members. It has been a long school tradition that when a team is honored, the entire school and whole families of the players are in attendance. But because of social distancing, this was no longer a possibility. My four little brothers were unable to come, and they were my biggest supporters, My friends and teachers had to watch from the class room via live stream, and although they still got to "see", it simply wasn't the same. This was one of the most important things to me this far into my life, and for the ones I loved and cared for most not to be there for me hurt a lot.
• 
  2020-07-22

  School reopening Jenga

  A comic strip about Covid-19
• 
  2022-04-03

  Teachers reflect on covid struggle

  This article details the reflection of a few Arkansas teachers as we reach two years since the beginning of the pandemic. The teachers highlight the drastic changes not only in safety precautions, but also the adjustments in order to provide meaningful learning in an entirely new landscape. Many of the teachers reported excitement at the prospect of a return to normalcy, however they desire some aspects of the pandemic adjustments to remain in place. Flexible learning, new and creative ideas of conveying topics, and more individualized learning methods have seen an increase in retention of material, which is fundamentally what education is all about. The teachers would also like an end to the stigma surrounding the covid learning adjustments, primarily the notion that education is now "entirely computer based". This notion is quite the contrary, according to educators, rather the new methods not only encourage flexibility and invite individualized learning but also promotes computer skills which will be vital for adulthood. I think this article is interesting because it highlights the fundamental change covid has made and continues to make on society. In order to promote public health and safety, teachers were forced to adjust and were forced to rework how they educated. This compelling of behavior has rendered some positivity. I think it is critical that children are able to have the safest and most effective education, and while covid seems terribly negative, there is a small glimmer of improvement from the pre-pandemic world. This article was published in the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette.
• 
  2020-07-22

  Technology Pick-up at a High School

  This is a screenshot of a Twitter post originally posted by a high school in the Deer Valley Unified School District in Phoenix, Arizona. From March 2020 to August 2020, the schools in DVUSD were entirely virtual. Therefore, during the summer, the high schools offered a drive-thru style opportunity for students to pick up their district-issued Chromebooks. This was done in order to help ensure that all students had access to class prior to school starting.
• 
  2020-09-16

  Classroom in Preparation of Students Returning

  This screenshot is of a post from Barry Goldwater High School, which is part of the Deer Valley Unified School District in Phoenix, Arizona. Though the school year started virtually, they began bringing students back to in-person learning in September 2020. The photo included shows desks that are spaced apart (using tape). Students were to be 3 feet apart should-to-shoulder. This shows methods used by schools during re-opening.
• 
  2020-08-05

  Heroes Work Here Sign

  This is a screenshot from a public high school's Twitter page. The photo is of a sign posted in the front of the school that says "Heroes Work Here". These signs were posted throughout the Deer Valley Unified School District at the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year in order to celebrate the work of teacher's who were started the year virtually and would transition to in-person.
• 
  2020-09-14

  High School Return to Learning Phased-In Opening

  This item is a screenshot of an Arizona high school's return-to-learning plan. When public schools were able to reopen, this high school chose a phased approach. For this, different grades would start in school at different dates. For the grades that were not in school yet, they would continue to attend online. Teachers were to teach students virtually and in-person at the same time. This method was used so that the schools could monitor and adjust for social distancing and disinfecting with less students on campus.
• 
  2022-04-18

  COVID-19 and my life.

  I’ll keep this as short and detailed as possible since I could go on and on about how the past few years sucked but also were good. When COVID-19 came to the United States in 2020 I was a Senior in Highschool about to graduate. I was in band with the wind ensemble and I did winter guard as well. I went to Meridian tech in the afternoon for biomedical sciences and was in all sorts of honors clubs. Because of COVID-19 I missed all of our band competitions in the spring, the rest of winter guard, all of my senior activities, a “normal” graduation, and more. I graduated in July instead of May. I respect and followed the mask mandates but it definitely sucked during times like graduation because that was such a special moment that was tarnished by the pandemic. I feel for the 2021 seniors but they at least had a warning. We didn’t. They had time to plan and we didn’t. After that I went to Oklahoma state university and I’m still there. It’s hard to believe that I’m about to be a Junior in college. The last few years have flown by. I missed out on a lot of opportunities and experiences along with everyone else. Luckily, the pandemic seems to be dying down but I know it’s still here. It pisses me off when people say it’s not that bad. One death or millions of deaths is bad and I wish people respected and understood that. But sadly, some don’t and they take this pandemic as a joke. I have yet to get COVID and I’m very happy about that and don’t plan on getting it ever hopefully. It’s caused de watering consequences on both a personal level and a nation wide level. This past year I had other personal experiences that didn’t help which was that my Grandma passed (from heart condition) unexpectedly, I came out to my parents as a lesbian and they’re homophobic, one of my dogs is in renal failure currently, my elderly neighbor who is like another grandma to me got run over by a car (she’s doing good now), I’ve made mistakes that caused me a lot of pain but I corrected them and am working on myself, and more. I know everything I’m saying is so negative but I can’t recall a whole lot that was positive in the last two years. My best friend is my girlfriend and we’ve been dating for 4 years, I just went to an oddities expo, etc. so at least there’s some positive things. There’s more that I haven’t said but not a whole lot more. Either way since 2020 life has been very hard. Not just for me but everyone. I just hope it goes up from here.
• 
  2022-04-15

  The Years of Covid 2020-2022

  How covid affected my transition from high school to college
• 
  2020-09-01

  Relationships during a pandemic

  The pandemic for me started my senior year of highschool. I was in a relationship and had many friends in my graduating class. When it first started my household took it very seriously and I wasn’t able to see the people in my class and my ex girlfriend because of it. I wasn’t able to get closure with the friends I’d never see again because of different life goals. To this day it ache’s that I didn’t have a senior blow out like prom with my graduating class. I just wanted one more time with everyone before we went on with our separate lives. Ultimately, covid ended a lot of my relationships with people including my now ex girlfriend. I just couldn’t handle long distance and covid. Being in different colleges sucked, but having covid in the mix of it made it harder to see each other. One of us would always be exposed and could never see each other. Eventually it became too much for my mental health and decided to pull the plug on that relationship. Covid took so many things away from me. The relationships I had before covid, almost everyone of them has been severed.
• 
  2020-07-09

  Back to School

  A comic strip about Covid-19
• 
  2021-05-29

  Graduation

  I chose to submit this photo because this is the first picture I took of my graduation -- after spending a year and a half in online schooling. I do remember my in-person schooling, but once everything shut down and my life completely changed, I was lost and had no idea how to handle things. I fell out with lots of friends because I didn't see them as much anymore. It became difficult to communicate with people because I spent most of my time indoors, trying to keep myself and my family safe from COVID-19. I lost interest in my hobbies and in school -- nothing felt worth it anymore because we were all trapped inside, and when we went outside, masks were required to keep us safe. I couldn't see people's faces anymore. Things didn't look positive -- I wasn't sure if anything would ever change. I worried we would be isolating for many more months, possibly years to come. But for some reason, graduation felt liberating. I remember walking out of the arena after graduating and thinking, "Okay, this is a new start." I knew things would not change immediately, and they would take time. But I felt that life goes on, and I will learn to get through this, just as I got through those times where I was isolated. I learned to appreciate the people I had around me, become closer with those who really mattered, and just appreciate daily life because at any moment, everything can change.
• 
  2022-01-21

  School Apologizes After Viral Photo Of Teacher Taping Mask To Student's Face Outrages Parents

  This is a news story from Your Tango by Nia Tipton. This is about a middle school in Pennsylvania, where a video of a teacher taping a mask to a student caused outrage. The photo was taken at Pennfield Middle School in Hatfield. The photo went viral and appeared on Sean Hannity's website. The middle school announced that they are going to conduct an investigation over this scandal. Parents also expressed their anger at school board meetings over this. The mother of the student getting his mask taped to his face says that she never intended for the story to go viral. She used the photo to gain support from a Facebook group prior to a school board meeting. She says that other individuals in the group took it upon themselves to spread this story further.
• 
  2022-04-05

  No masks on campus

  Masks are no longer mandatory in the state of Arizona. As of April 2022, as a former high school teacher, masks are no longer required for students, faculty, and staff at San Luis High School. Some students decide to keep wearing their masks, and others do not; the same thing happens with faculty and staff, some wear them, and others don't. For the most part, everyone is respectful about wearing and not wearing masks. Students and staff understand that these are the new norms we currently live in and are working great at San Luis High School.
• 
  2020-08-29

  Socially distanced and socially safe summer camp

  The attached article is something that is probably not well known. In Seattle, Washington there is the Pacific Science Museum, a fun educational museum for all ages, but focused on kids. Every summer they run educational camps for K-8 graders. It was unclear if after months of distance learning (early pandemic, 2020) students would be physically or emotionally ready to do a group activity in person. PacSci’s camps were able to run while students were socially distanced and masked. This matters because there has been a lot of rhetoric about kids not being able to wear masks for a variety of reasons, but this article proves that kids were able to understand social distancing and mask-wearing so they could have a safe and fun thing to do. With these practices in place, combined with low group sizes, and the use of a lot of outdoor time, they didn’t have any transmission cases for the whole summer. Not included in the article but they had the same success the next summer, 2021, and are on track to continue again the summer of 2022. The significance is not just to a collection focused on children, but also to the service industry since this is a less formal education setting that leans more toward front-facing customer service.
• 
  2022-03-31

  'A Cry for Help': More than a Third of High Schoolers Report Poor Mental Health During COVID, CDC Study Finds

  This is a story from USA Today by Adrianna Rodriguez. This is about the mental health in teens during the pandemic and how it has affected them. The CDC study that is cited says that 44% of high schoolers reported feeling persistently sad or helpless during 2021. Over half of the students surveyed were reported to have experienced emotional abuse from a parent, with 11% saying they have experienced physical abuse. Nearly 30% of students reported a parent or another adult in their house had lost a job. In a demographics breakdown, LGBT students reported more suicide attempts and poorer mental health than their counterparts. One third of students say that they have experienced racism. This article is meant to help show the impact COVID has had on people and the way lockdowns have impacted high schoolers specifically.
• 
  2022-03-30

  The Impact of SARS-CoV-2 on Students

  At the beginning of the pandemic there was mass confusion and scares about what was to come of this new, unknown virus called SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19. Once widespread outbreaks were prevalent, everyone was sent home from work and schools. A lot of smaller businesses could no longer make rent and went out of business, and many people did not know how they were going to make ends meet. However, one of the most vital impacts, was on our students in upper elementary and above. Many public and private schools, from elementary to high school, did not make any school work necessary to be completed in Oklahoma, and as a result, created a gap in the knowledge needed for the continuation of schooling in the years to come. For freshmen college students, as I was at the time, if you were living on campus, in the dorm rooms and apartments, many of us were given notice that we had two weeks to move out unless we had extenuating circumstances. Additionally, all of our classes after spring break were moved online (in the best way possible) but often times were unsuitable to the in person experience. As a Microbiology Major enrolled in several different science classes with labs, it was nearly impossible to get the necessary experience to properly understand the laboratory material. As a result, this made it more difficult in the semesters to come to understand what was required of me, due to the lack of knowledge of materials I would have learned had I been able to attend my labs. Because of the severity of this virus and the rapid spread which sent everyone quarantining in their homes, we may see a lasting impact, not due to the viruses long-term side-effects, but due to our educational generations having a detrimental gap in proper school education.
• 
  2022-03-25

  Virginia's Law Barring Mask Mandates Does Not Apply to 12 Children with Disabilities

  A news article from NPR talks about the parents of 12 children that challenged the newly signed law by Governor Glenn Youngkin to halt the enforcement of that law because it violated the children's rights under the federal American with Disabilities Act. This law would only give parents the right to choose for their own children. The group of parents have kids with health conditions that range from asthma to cystic fibrosis, which put them at heightened risk for COVID-19. What about other kids that have health conditions that make them a heightened risk for COVID whose parents didn't say their federal rights were violated?
• 
  2020-05-06

  Graduating Without the Pomp: Students, parents push back against virtual and drive-through graduation ceremonies

  My oldest daughter is now a senior in high school, and she is still pretty upset that she didn’t get to have a junior prom. She understands that in the context of everything happening in the world, it’s not the most important or most tragic thing that could happen, but it still stings. For many students, it’s the milestones like prom and graduation that make the whole four years worthwhile. If the milestones that high school students look forward to can’t be held, it can affect them deeply. As schools closed and Covid-19 became a fixture in our everyday lives, school events like sports, proms, and graduations went away. Some schools held virtual graduations featuring videos and speeches over Zoom. Others attempted to maintain an atmosphere of celebration by holding drive-up graduations with decorated cars and parking lots. However, many students and parents were upset by this change. While this is understandable, most school districts prioritized the health and safety of students, families, and staff over having an in-person ceremony. This article helps to capture some of the frustrations seniors expressed in 2020 when their hopes of walking the stage and receiving their diploma seemed to vanish overnight.
• 
  2022-01-11

  Arizona teacher shortage getting worse with COVID-19

  Arizona teachers have struggled with obtaining higher pay and better funding for years. Add to that a legislative body that doesn’t prioritize educational funding, improving teaching conditions or student learning. When Covid-19 reared its ugly head, the pressure public school teachers normally deal with in overcrowded, undersupplied classrooms intensified and – for many overworked teachers – this was the last straw. Teachers who were in a position to took early retirement. Others simply left the profession for the private sector. Still, some remained and adapted to whatever model of learning their school district employed – sometimes on a week-to-week basis. Now that most schools have returned to an in-person modality, teachers are still leaving the classroom. This article sheds lights on the teacher shortage and how, even still, Arizona educators are contending with Covid-19 in their classrooms and families, leading them to reconsider their decision to stay in education.
• 2022-03-24

  Covid-19 Cuts Senior Year Short

  As a 2020 senior, I went on Spring Break and never came back to the high school that I thought I would enjoy for 2 more months. I cried at the fact that I wouldn’t get to experience my “lasts” of high school; no senior trip, no senior field day, no senior prank, and no graduation. I felt like my senior year had been ripped away from me in a matter of seconds, and I felt that I had worked hard in school for nothing. I questioned if I would ever get to go to college or travel again. Covid-19 turned my happy senior year into a nightmare. I remember feeling so discouraged and depressed; even my town’s streets were completely empty. It was a time of utter darkness that I never want to live through again. The unknown scares me, and Covid-19 sent my fear into full force.
• 
  2022-03-21

  In Hanover, the anti-LGBTQ school board needs discipline, not protesting students

  This story is about the school board of Hanover County in Virginia needing discipline instead of letting it's students protest and participate in walk-outs during school hours because of the policies against their transgender students. The school board is accused of having no intentions of supporting the non-binary and transgender students of Hanover. This is important because it is once again showing discriminatory policies that the school board keeps bringing up against transgender students during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• 
  2021-07-15

  High School COVID-19 Expectations and Procedures

  The document is the "COVID-19 Parent/Guardian Expectations" section of a school handbook for the 2021-2022 school year. For this school district, the 2021-2022 school year is the first year since the pandemic started that would be entirely in-person. Due to this, school staff, parent/guardians, and students were expected to comply with essential health and safety standards. The handbook covers when students should be kept home from school, how to report symptoms of COVID-19 or a positive test, bus protocols, sanitation policies followed by teachers and school staff, mask expectations, cafeteria and food procedures, accommodations for social distancing, requirements of school volunteers, and athletics. This document shows how schools worked to create policies and procedures in order to keep students in school in-person. These procedures were created in anticipation of the first school year that would be completely in-person, since the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years were partially online.
• 
  2020-05-20

  Drive-Thru Graduation at a Phoenix High School

  The photos are from the Drive-Thru Graduation Ceremony at Bostrom High School in Phoenix, Arizona. To have a graduation ceremony for the 2020 graduates, the high school put on a socially-distant commencement where parents and families could show their support from their cars. These images show the creative lengths that school staff, district staff, and parents went to give 2020 graduates a celebration that they deserve. In 2020, all people made some level of sacrifice, and the photos are an example of how communities worked together so that students did not have to lose another milestone in their lives.
• 
  2022-03-20

  Covid 19 as a senior

  When Covid first started, I never imagined it becoming, as serious or being as long as it was. I was a senior in high school, and on March 13, 2020 I never thought that would be my last day of high school. All I wanted was to participate in all the fun activities, but that never happened as life never really went back to normal.
• 
  2020-09-08

  Remote Learning

  This was my son on his first days of remote learning in Kindergarten. He was a great trooper and worked hard to have the sense of being in school. Some days were more difficult than others, but overall we made it through and we continue to prosper through this pandemic.
• 
  2022-03-16

  School Shootings, I don't miss them.

  This is a ParentSquare message from the superintendent from the school district that I work at. A student from the Online school that our district provides as an alternative for students because of COVID-19 decided it was a good idea to shoot at fellow students. This is particularly frustrating for me as a school employee because this student put other students in danger and ended the life of at least one student. Actions like this also put the school employees or outside civilians in danger if they get caught in the crossfire. Gang activity has become an issue in this town and I fear there will be more retaliation and the cycle of violence will continue. This will likely interrupt the student's education even more because of fear or fascination, probably just as much as COVID has. It has become increasingly difficult to engage some students with their students because they are behind maturity-wise after a year of being online due to COVID and this school shooting is not helpful.
• 
  2022-03-11

  The Hanover County School Board, in partnering with an anti-LGBTQ outfit, has declared war on its transgender students.

  This news article is from the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Richmond, Virginia. The article contains a recent review of the Hanover Country School Board seeking legal advice from a well-known hate group that disguises themselves as "Christian conservative legal group" also known as the Alliance Defending Freedom. Back in December of 2021, the ACLU of Virginia filed against Hanover County for discriminatory policies against transgender students. The pandemic has bought out numerous laws against the safety of LGBTQ students and individuals. This is just a small example of what queer children have been facing since the start of the pandemic.
• 2020-09-01

  Seattle's 2020 summer, school, and kids

  At the end of 2020, I was completing my student teaching online for my BA in Secondary Education. I was placed in a school in Seattle. Student teaching during this time is something that was incredibly difficult. Looking at faces through blurry webcams, and seeing the black tiles in zoom from students who wouldn't or couldn't turn on cameras. I will never know what a lot of the students looked like, or what their voices sounded like, but getting to read their work, and see their messages in emails and chats is something that I will always remember and will always hold a place in my heart. The 12-14-year-olds I was teaching had just been the last 3 1/2 months watching the BLM protests and marches in their city take place. A few students told us that they lived just streets away from the main events. Some students had been active in the BLM marches and protests that had taken place during the summer before, some stayed at home and watched on social media live streams and the news, some had parents who were heavily involved. They watched their friends, their family, their community, and strangers get tear-gassed, hit with "blast balls", and be subject to other physical violence. The levels at which they understood the what and why varied. Some had such an amazing level of nuance that some adults I knew couldn't comprehend. Others had an extremely base understanding of why people were protesting and marching. But all understood that it was a monumental event and would be something remembered in history. These children were scared, concerned, confused for a variety of reasons. Yet, overwhelmingly there was a sense of urgency for justice from these kids. My lead teacher and I knew that we had to pivot lessons in order to keep them engaged and meet their needs. Focusing on how the concepts they needed to learn could be applied to material that would interest them, and using homeroom activities to try to calm nerves, create a sense of community and answer questions about everything from Covid, to the protests, to the current election. They wanted to write and read about what was important to them, what they saw around them, and they wanted to read about different perspectives and lives from their own. We honored that. For the final writing assignment of the semester, we gave them some guidelines and standards that needed to be met within their writing, but gave them some freedom on how they wanted to meet those standards. I won't get into the specifics of the assignment, but I will say it worked well and was adapted to best serve students at all levels, and those with IEP/504 plans. We were met with everything from songs and poetry, letters to the mayor and the governor, essays about our anchor text, to reports about youth activists that they researched. I don't think the impact of the events of summer 2020 in Seattle on children is thought about. The events that a child experiences and is around affects them for the rest of their lives. Most don't have the skills yet to emotionally process fully what they see. Their thinking didn't stop when the marches and protests did, they wanted to learn and talk about it in order to process. The compounding factors of the summer and prior to that Seattle was essentially ground zero for Covid in the U.S. left most kids spinning. School became a safe place for a lot of these kids, and I hope that it has continued to be one.
• 
  2022-03-15

  Passionate and (mostly) respectful recent debate in the waning pandemic

  While the all-encompassing strength of the COVID-19 Pandemic is waning, it still persists and lingers. This is a critical time where countries can either dreamily and abruptly attempt to return to idealized pre-pandemic existence or continue to return to their visions of normalcy through steps found in scientific methodology. Debates that focused on safety, health, and personal freedoms (especially about masks and vaccines) were constantly in the news the last two years, with some deteriorating into disheartening and embarrassing public displays. Surely, these debates will continue indefinitely, and all perspectives will be important to history. While browsing this archive, many of the stories are of those who subscribe to the reality of the pandemic, who trust and listen to science, and who have highlighted the way their lives have changed during the pandemic. I am from Arizona, born and raised. I often find myself to be the lone liberal or democrat, particularly at work, in a state formerly known as a red state, now perhaps purple. While Arizona is well represented in this archive regarding life during a pandemic, it has many people living in it who dispute the pandemic's origin, virulence, and the government's attempt to control personal freedoms, as much as I personally disagree. The attached YouTube video shows a meeting of the Kyrene School District Governing Board from January 25th, 2022. The relevant background is that before the 2021 Winter Holiday break this district emailed parents that masks would no longer be mandatory after the new year. By the end of the break, Omicron infections had increased, and the district regressed back to mandatory masks after the holidays. Please watch, specifically from minutes 20:35 through 38:28. To me, a person who reads a diverse group of news sites daily, this clip has brought me hope. Of all the ugly comments I have read on far right or left news sites, debate like the one in this video is instead mostly constructive, passionate, and respectful. I may not agree with everything discussed in this sample, but I respect people's right to debate their beliefs. I believe studying other perspectives is useful for future generations. Historians one hundred years from now may wonder why certain people thought masks were useless in schools. Hopefully, between this J.O.T.P.Y. archive and the articles that exist on the internet, a thoughtful sample of diverse perspectives can be researched. Additionally, I hope this video adds to material in this archive that demonstrates the anti-mask perspective to historians who could research and educate future generations on state and federal authority during health crises to hopefully prevent conflicts as we saw during the COVID-19 pandemic. This video is owned and uploaded by the Kyrene School District to YouTube.
• 2020-09-09

  The Four Walls of Insanity

  The day my life completely changed, QUARATINE had been announced in my district. What had begun as a light conversation with no expected impact on us later came to crumble our walls of reality and how vulnerable we really are. We live in a time of the future a virus wasn't expected to take so many of us out the thought that we've evolved beyond this point was false. We were unprepared for anything that was to come. I never got to enjoy my senior year complete my senior year, a year I'll never get back. I had begun with so much excitement it was my senior year in cross country I gratefully got to finish my season with all my teammates and some of my best friends from high school. However that would later come crashing down as I was getting excited for prom season shopping for a new dress and planning the night out with friends we were sent on a "2 week spring break" I never got back. Classes continued online, I no longer was able to do my daily routine of going to school then practice with friends. From now on any interaction was via Zoom or FaceTime we longed for reconnection. I'm someone who thrives off interacting with my friends especially pre quarantine the lack of interactions was draining me. I had to find a new way to cope which as you can see led to many hair color changes within a couple months. The four walls I would be so excited to come to after a long practice now became a prison cell. I would't change the way I chose to quarantine because I saw the negative affects of socializing with sadly one of my neighbors passing during that height of pandemic. However we are all only human and selfishness is part of who we are and I think it's fair to say my mental health took a large toll during the couple months that felt like years. Once my family as well as others became more lenient I was a able to hangout in small groups of people but never large and still fear it a little over 2 years later. I don't believe I have fully recovered from the situation this time period put us through. The isolation did allow me to discover new interests and how to spend time with myself which can be difficult, as well as an appreciation for long walks on your own. However it was a confusing time and one that only brought about more anxiety and fear with someone who deals with this struggles on the daily.
• 
  2020-03-31

  Ending the School Year in COVID-19

  I described how ending the school year during COVID-19 was. I am a high school teacher, and we went on Spring Break and never came back. I include an e-mail I sent to my students.
• 
  2022-02-06

  Lost Basketball Season

  What I was able to do when my ability to play basketball was limited during the pandemic.
• 
  2022-02-07T10:00:00

  Taking Covid-19 Step by Step

  My story describes the cycle of emotions I went through during the past two years of the pandemic. I try to make sense of the situation, especially with high school, and find some negative and positive outcomes from my quarantine experience.
• 
  2020-05-30

  POV: Graduating during 2020

  I graduated high school in the year 2020, right when Covid-19 was growing at a rapid rate, and the world was on a lockdown. March 13, 2020 was the last day of high school for me, but I didn’t know it at the time, no one did. Senior year was supposed to be me and my friends’ last year together before we all went our separate ways for college, but the only way I could see them was social distancing in a parking lot or on face time. My mental health began to plummet, I was never one to be home, I was always out of the house. Just the isolation, not seeing your closest friends, not having anywhere to go outside the house, and doing the same boring stuff every day was so frustrating because there was nothing you could do to change that because the rest of the world was doing it too and it just was how it was. I never got to go to prom, something that was supposed to be the best night in all of high school. Events that we have been looking forward to all our lives were being taken away from us, including graduation. It felt weird to be celebrating me graduating, since we weren’t even really having school. I tried to be optimistic, I mean I worked so hard for 18 years to get to this point in my life. My high school decided to do a drive-thru graduation, where I stayed in the car and was handed my diploma, not with all the teachers or friends who helped me get there, but I was grateful to have my family. I never got to shake my principal’s hand, had people cheering for me, or able to stand with my friends and throw my cap in the air. My graduation party was the following week and held outdoors, and I was excited to see close family and friends. However, 2 days before my event that I was already kind of sad about how many important people weren’t going to be there, my extended family contracted covid. My extended family was as close as my immediate family to me, my aunt was my baby-sitter growing up, and they were unable to make it. I was crushed and crying for days leading up to it and even after, it just wasn’t the same without them. It’s sad writing this, something that I spent my whole life working forward to just ripped away. It was a true test of character, adaptability, and mentality. This was the lowest point in my life, all thanks to Covid-19.
• 
  2022-02-06

  Graduation in 2020

  After everything closed down in March of 2020, I thought for sure that I would not step foot in my high school ever again. I finished out the rest if my classes online, and decided that I would be going to Duquesne University starting in the fall. I was a little upset on how my high school days ended, but I accepted the fact that there was nothing I could do about it, and that that was just the way it went. As the summer came I began to think less and less about my high school. Until one day I check my school email and got a message from my form dean. She said that the school wanted to have an in person graduation for us just like all the other classes before us. I was pretty surprised to hear this because I know other schools in my area were not going to do this and just told the graduating seniors "Sorry, but there is nothing we can do". The school set the date for graduation in July, and said we all had to be spaced out and wear masks for the whole time. I didn't think much of this email after I first read it. I thought it was a nice gesture but it wasn't really going to happen. But as the date came closer and closer, I realized it actually was going to happen. Honestly, I wasn't too excited about having to go to my graduation. I was contempt with how my high school career ended and was ready to move on. I wasn't the type of person that was so in love with my school. I still was in contact with my friends so I didn't really see a need to go sit through a two hour long graduation outside in the July summer heat. But I thought about my mom and how she would like to go see it and how much it would mean to her. So I decided to go, even though I really did not have much choice. After the graduation was over, my opinions about it changed. I was really happy that we got to have a graduation and I realize what a kind gesture that was for my high school to put one together for us.
• 
  2022-02-05

  The Bittersweet Impact of the Pandemic

  March 13, 2020 was my last day as a student at Fairport High School in Rochester, NY, although I didn’t know it yet. I remember that day at school being filled with joking remarks, especially “Happy last day of school!” We discussed whether or not we thought school would close in economics class, and if it did, we came to the conclusion that it would only be a couple of weeks. The next day, I was in the car with my mom when I heard that school was to be closed indefinitely and that my dance studio, which I had been dancing at since I was three, also canceled classes. I started crying and got mad at myself that I took all those moments in the halls and with my teachers and friends for granted, as well as dance competitions and practice. But, I calmed myself down by reassuring myself that it would only be a couple weeks. My mom and I then went to Wegmans to see how empty the aisles were, and I was surprised to find that the cheese aisle was basically empty, and that there was no more toilet paper nor paper towels available. It’s weird looking back on how we weren’t wearing masks yet. The two weeks turned into months and on May 1st, school and dance stated that they were closed for the remainder of the year. I missed out on ball, my last dance competitions, my last dance recital, senior bash, and my graduation. We graduated by watching a poorly put-together slideshow of everyone’s pictures and pre-recorded speeches. Teachers came by and handed us our diplomas. We all drove by the dance studio the day that recital was supposed to be. However, despite these setbacks, I was able to learn more about myself and become closer to my family. My life that was previously extremely busy was put on pause, and sometimes I miss that. I started to paint, I watched a ton of movies that I had always wanted to see, I had time to spend with my dogs and cat, I got closer with my siblings, and I started to become an activist after the death of George Floyd and educate myself on racial inequalities and police brutality. The scariest part of quarantine was when my mother was redeployed to the COVID unit at RGH. She was only there for a couple weeks, but she saw how hectic and scary COVID truly was. She saw people die and not be able to say goodbye to their loved ones. Whenever she returned from work, I would have the front door propped open and the shower running so she could just jump right in the shower, and then I would spray everything with Lysol. Although I became majorly depressed in September of 2020 and I still dwell on the moments that I have missed, the pandemic was able to put my priorities into perspective. The pandemic was able to teach me not to take things for granted, to pay attention to the world around me, to try to make a difference in the world, and to make more time for the things and people that I love. May all those who have passed from COVID rest in peace and my heart goes out to all those impacted.
• 
  2020-03-13

  The Tragedy of the Covid-19 Pandemic

  I was in my senior year of High School when covid happened. That year that was going so well ended so badly. Once covid hit I lost all my friends and my girlfriend at the time. Everything changed and I worked at a grocery store. Ive never seen so many people at like such animals. while working at the store there would be about 4-5 fights a day and people were just fighting and emptying the shelves. It was scary to see that this is what was happening to our world and all I could really do was just sit there and watch and still hope that we would have enough product for me to still have a job. And that's not even the worst of it. I lost all of the fun things that happen senior year. I never got to go to prom, I never had a graduation ceremony, I lost everything. my girlfriend started lying and saying she couldn't see me because of coiled and I eventually found out she was cheating. I lost all my friends as well. The worst part of it is with everyone being quarantined, if you walked outside it looked like an abandoned waste land. little to no human life for months. You'd only see people at the stores and even then they aren't acting like the same people you once knew. But covid has done worse to me. Its ruined my football career and taken my dream away. It is what it is and I'm doing what I can to move on, but this pandemic changed me and everyone else. things are starting to go kinda back how they were but its not the same. Things will never be how they once were. Even when this virus fully passes and ends up just like the flu, the strain it has left on mankind as a whole will always be there. And even when historians in 50 years look back at this, No matter what there will be some part of them that has been effected by this. I honestly don't have much more to say because I feel like I've said what matters. All I have left to say is if you grew up/ are growing up during this I'm so sorry that this is what you also have to live through.
• 
  2022-02-03

  A Return to Noisy Normalcy

  Due to the rising number of Covid cases in Baltimore County Maryland, many schools had to teach students virtually for a two week period. Teachers, such as myself, gave lessons from the quiet abodes of our homes or empty classrooms. After two weeks of little sound besides the occasional 'ping' of a new email, we were allowed to return. The recording provided is the sound of hallway traffic and chatter from right outside my classroom. The peace and quite of virtual learning directly contrasts the sensory experience from stepping outside my classroom to greet students. As normal in-person teaching duties have returned, the sound of slamming lockers, excited chatter, frantic test talks, footsteps, and warm greetings have returned with it. While reopening schools brings with it new challenges and concerns, for now teachers and students alike can appreciate some noise and normalcy.
• 2020-03-13

  An odd senior year

  On Friday, March 13, 2020, I attended my high school for the last time. I heard people remarking that students would be sent home for a few weeks, a month at most. As students emptied out lockers and said their goodbyes to teachers, I was a little stunned by the whole process. I've never experienced something of this sort, so it was a bit difficult to adjust. Sure enough, around a week later, we got the email that we would be completing our academic year through Zoom. I couldn't believe it! I was so upset that I wouldn't be able to see my teachers or friends before leaving for college! A few weeks after that, I received a message that senior prom would be canceled, and this was really a bummer. It was really upsetting because I pictured the night over a hundred times, taking inspiration from movies and shows, but of course, it would remain in my imagination. This story details an unconventional end to high school. Typically, one's senior year is complete with great anticipation, however, the outbreak of the pandemic resulted in panic, fear, and disappointment. This is just one example of how the pandemic adversely affected life for students, especially those leaving high school.
• 
  2022-02-01

  Bagged Snack

  This helps understand the history of the pandemic and the situation within elementary schools and that uneasy feeling is one that everyone throughout the school feels. As covid coutines to hit elementary schools hard. Teachers and staff are doing all they can to keep students safe as well as teach and help them learn. While at snacktime, we are reminded of our current times with our students pulling masks down just so that they could enjoy snacktime. We have to be aware that this pandemic is and will effect the younger generations in ways we can't understand right now.
• 2021-02-08

  Tweets that reflected life during online school

  These tweets reflect how I felt while doing my senior year from behind a computer screen in my room. I would put my zoom class on and then spend time on my phone. Life was really boring, I had school everyday and couldn't see many of my friends. My school used Microsoft Teams for class, and it was really bad compared to Zoom.
• 
  12/08/2020

  Anonymous Oral History, 2020/12/08

  C19OH
• 
  12/11/2020

  Wyatt Weisensel Oral History, 2022/11/10

  Wyatt J. Weisensel was born and raised in Sun Prairie Wisconsin and now works as a software developer for the Orbis Corporation. In the interview, Wyatt discusses how COVID-19 has affected his life, especially his work. At the time the pandemic started in March, he was teaching English in Japan. He shares his views on how, after getting back to the U.S., he needed to find a job, which turned out to be quite a difficult process. He also touches on how politics has affected the U.S. response to the virus.
• 
  2021-12-21

  My senior year in high school

  The pandemic happened in my senior year of high school so it ruined my last year because I officially become a college student. I was really shocked knowing that I could never be in the classroom again. I wasn't expecting that because everybody thought it was going to be like a 2 weeks vacation for students. The challenge I was facing that is staying inside the house without stepping outside for 2 months. I drove me crazy because I like going on with friends and family, staying inside makes me feel like I've been locked up. And the fear of getting infected by Covid because you could put your family in danger. But as time goes, I get used to everything, I get to step outside after 2 months and I have to get used to wearing a mask in public which is not comfortable at all