A Glimpse of Youth and COVID-19

December 01, 2020

Monday, November 30^th, 2020

The first time I heard of COVID-19, I was working as a Behavior Technician for Bellingham High School in Massachusetts. My coworker was the first to tell me the news about it during early 2020. At the time, I didn't pay much attention to it and neither did any of the students or staff. As time went on, the news surrounding the virus became more prevalent, but it almost seemed to catch on like wildfire come the second week of March 2020.

On Thursday, March 12^th, 2020, Bellingham High School had a scheduled half day set in place for their students. During these 3.5 hours, staff spent the day attempting to maintain some normalcy but also mentally preparing both themselves and the youth for a potential shut down. As panic struck through the rooms, students slathering hand sanitizer everywhere, kids crying in the bathroom, and my students on the verge of a mental breakdown, I understood that today was not the day to push for their missing work to get turned in. Today was not the day to work on paperwork and reading assignments. Today was the day to talk to our youth and let their concerns be heard. That evening, a district wide email went out to students, staff, and families stating that all classes will take place online until further notice. That further notice ended up being the rest of the school year.

Taking the lessons we learned from the shut down, this academic year (2020-2021) has been somewhat of a hybrid model of your traditional school and a full remote model. BHS decided to divide the school of approximately 750 students into four separate cohorts: (A) students with last name starting in the first half of the alphabet, (B) students with last name starting in the second half of the alphabet, (C) students who wish to remain full remote, and (D) students granted permission to be in person for four days out of the week. And so, the model goes like this:

Monday and Tuesday – Cohorts A & D in person, B & C online

Wednesday (half-day) – All cohorts online

Thursday and Friday – Cohorts B & D in person, A & C online

At a first glance, this model seems to work well. The school is split in a way that allows for contact tracing, proper social distancing in classrooms, time for full school sanitization, and an opportunity for most students to interact with peers and staff in person. Additionally, all students, unless granted permission, must always wear their masks expect under two conditions: at their socially distanced lunch or during the designated "mask-break" periods. These mask breaks consist of staff taking their students outside twice a day to walk a lap around the school. During this walk, students are supposed to stand a minimum of ten feet apart, though that rarely happens. During inclement weather, staff are required to bring their students to a designated area in the school or just outside the school, under an overhang, while students take their mask break. And so, though the plan looks good on paper, every "fool-proof" plan has its true limitations.

Whenever a student or staff member is deemed a close contact, meaning they were around a person that tested positive for COVID-19 for longer than 15-minutes, they are required to quarantine for 14 days from the date of exposure and get tested. Recently, there was a large gathering of BHS and some middle school students that resulted in all of them being deemed a close contact. This incident caused Cohorts A, B, and C to remain fully online for over two weeks, while Cohort D was still granted permission to remain in person. However, the parents of Cohort D had the opportunity to keep their children home if they decided to. This was the case with two of my students.

The uncertainty of whether or not school will be in person or online is a daily struggle that all members of the school district are facing (fully masked, of course). This particular incident of the school shut down is a grand scale and has not been a common event that has taken place over the year, but it has happened to individuals throughout the community. Students and staff have been required to quarantine, causing them to work solely online and not receive the full supports available for them. Some staff members have even been granted full permission to work the entire school year online because they have underlying health conditions. This leaves students in person to sit in a classroom and receive instruction from their teacher on a Google Meet, while a substitute teacher oversees the students at their six-foot spaced apart desks.

Even as I write this, I am currently quarantining because I was a close contact on Thanksgiving to a family member and anticipate getting my test results sometime today. However, regardless of my test results, I am not allowed back into the building until after my two-week quarantine period has ended.

Overall, the pandemic of COVID-19 has had dramatic effects on the youth of today. All students are required to do their work on a school-issued Chromebook where their live activity is monitored, and they all face a daily uncertainty of whether or not they will come back into the building the next day. As an advocate of mental health and wellness, I understand that the social interactions are a necessary part of life and development, but I worry significantly about how the insecurity surrounding school plays a role on youth mental health and anxiety. This is an extremely novel time to live through and it seems as if there are no perfect or even concrete answers right now.