Everyone can remember the date March 13th, 2030. For Senior, Ayla Abdellatif remembers the unrealistic feeling that came upon her. She was in the 8th grade, which should be the year of middle school where you feel success and joy about finishing middle school, yet for this class, it was quite the opposite.
“The word of COVID was plaguing everywhere,” Abdellatif said “I remember hearing about a case of COVID in my English class but I just brushed it off… Next thing I know it spread at a lightning speed with fear spreading with it”
While you may be asking yourself, why is COVID being brought up almost a year and a half after the mask mandate was released, several states including Texas and Arkansas have recently closed their schools due to an increased spike in positive test results.
Prospect High Schools Nurse, Cheryl Novak, was in the face of COVID itself many times. With being a school nurse, you can’t ever avoid sickness, with it surrounding you the majority of the time, but she felt as if Prospect did a great job making her feel secure in the job she was putting herself into. The beginning of schools opening in 2020 was definitely not the easiest though.
“When schools first started to open up, contact tracing was very stressful because of how complex and involved it was,” Novak said.
According to CDC data, there is an emerging new variant, EG.5, which accounts for 17.3% of infections in the U.S.
Senior Lucy Nunez has tested positive for COVID twice over the span of the past 3 years, testing positive over Christmas break in 2020 and in 2021 as well. Like all students, Nunez had to do remote learning, which sometimes came with benefits yet negatives as well.
“I could be comfortable in my own house but it also was a struggle when there were technical difficulties. It was really hard to learn and it also was a distraction to be in my room,” Nunez said.
Completely the opposite, Abdellatif felt as if there was absolutely no positive side to being online to learn.
“(Online learning) was honestly extremely difficult for me… It was hard not to socialize with my teachers and classmates face to face which deprived me of a proper education in many ways” Abdellatif said.
While some schools across the country are looking at shutting down, Novak believes that isn’t the case for schools anywhere near here.
“I would be shocked if we went into another lockdown… I believe it is highly unlikely” Novak said.
While COVID might seem as if it was a lifetime ago, it always finds a way to creep back onto the population. It comes to a shock that schools across the nation are shutting down to this horrible virus like it once had before, but if it were to be widespread again, everyone should be aware of the safety precautions needed to take in order for a more safe environment.
