Students Reflections Part 3 “My Return to School During Covid19” – Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA

Hera are more reflections submitted by my students as part of Global Student Project My Return to School During Covid19. My students look forward to reading their peers’ reflections from other Jesuit schools around the world.  Thank you!


Returning to School: Kevin, 15, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA 

First off, the emotions I got from Sam Kin’ 20 were overwhelming. I felt like if I was watching a movie that was really well edited. I want to start off and say that it was an amazing video with great detail which gave me a sense of anything is possible. He took advantage of the stay in home order to spend time with his family, which to me seems amazing. Not only did he stay in contact with his friends but took time to look back at his old memories. I think that he gave me a sense of joy while watching this because most of this video, the viewer gets to see the smile on peoples faces. Most of the video calls all you see are smiles which makes the video 10x better. Sam did not seem mad, nor sad, he seemed happy. Sam’s emotions are not only a good thing to see but an example for others, in what to do when in house like family bonding.

The emotion I see from the first painting is pain. I do not know why but I see pain. As Moana she seems confused and overwhelmed with emotions. As the viewer, we see the author probably wanted her to look like that because he probably seems like he cannot handle everything that is happening around him. As we see a clock, we could assume that it is that he cannot handle time management while being stuck at home. We just see Moana confused which gives me a pain emotion. The next picture I get a sense of sadness. I say this because the color blue really gets to me as a sadness type of emotion. We see half a face and half a blue face which could maybe be tears of sadness. Just as a viewer we do not know what the author tried to put out but hopefully he is doing fine. These two pieces of artwork are amazing and look well done, so to whoever drew these they did a good job.

I personally have not gone back to school. During times of uncertainty, I think we should stay put in our households and just wait to see how everything turns out. As I see people returning to campus, it was not how I was expecting it. I thought that there was going to be like glass or plastic around the desk but there was not. Personally, I would not want to wear my mask all day long because it gets uncomfortable. I just hope that all this ends and we find a cure to return to school normally. I would love to go to school with no mask on and be around my friends but at the moment I just have to be patient.

The times I experience the COVID-19 pandemic is when I go to stores. If we had food at home, we would not go to stores, but we go for our health and to stay healthy. We go for essentials like food, toilet paper, medicine, etc. Here I see people with mask on and with a distance from others. This is typically the only time I notice the COVID-19 pandemic aside from the news. I do not go out that much because my mom is kind of scared if one of us gets sick and she does not want that to happen. Personally, I do appreciate everything she is doing for me and hopefully we do not get sick.

To start off, I think we should all wear mask in public areas. Although if you are social distancing, I think it may still be in the air. That is my opinion and not factually based but we need to take precautions. Social distancing is a major key that helps slow the spread. With masks on and distance apart, it would be less likely for you to get the virus which is amazing. People who do wear mask when going out and are walking beside people are not making smart decisions. I think they should just pop on a mask and avoid trying to be besides people.

On the other hand, schools which are designed for a large gathering of people should not get back in session in my opinion. Not only are students going to be in areas where others are but, in a classroom, where students switch with other students in seats. That means that students are touching everything, and one student just may end up touching his face, and BOOM, INFECTED. I think that gatherings like that, sports, mass, and assemblies should just have a pause until a cure is found. Moves from like the NBA made a smart decision but the cost of that is out of reach from a regular salary of a human being. Everyone should just stay home and continue on with their life. That also includes eating, eating should also be only at home. Restaurants should not allow seating for customers because of customers just touching tables and seats and they may not disinfect. It is one’s responsibility to prevent COVID-19 from spreading, not other people’s job to do so.

Returning to School: Kyle, 14, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA 
In response to the pandemic, Bellarmine went to a mostly virtual model for the first semester of school. This has resulted in me staying home 24/7. Every day, I am on my computer for 8+ hours a day for school. At the beginning this was hard, but I have now gotten used to it and have gotten into the daily groove. This online school is drastically different, and I obviously would prefer in-person learning but it is very understandable how much caution Bellarmine is taking to keep everyone safe. Online learning has not been very different than what I imagined but it has still been stressful. I find myself always checking canvas and thinking to myself if I have missed anything. If I go back to in-person I know that I will be making extra sure that I take the proper precautions. Every weekend I go to visit my grandma and great-grandma. They are
both old and are in the risk category for Covid-19. If I do back to in-person instruction I will most likely not visit them anymore due to an abundance of caution.

In response to the debate about masks and distancing, I think that the choice is a no brainer on what to do. In order to get back the freedoms that we all had pre-pandemic, the best way to do that is to wear a mask and social distance. You are not only doing it to protect yourself, but you are doing it to protect other and it is selfish if you do not. Larger gathering of more than 50should not be resumed unless there is a vaccine or proper precautions are taken. Obviously, every situation is different and there would be exceptions both ways so it is hard to generalize the situation for everybody. For example, sports are easier to resume do the fact that they are outdoors and have air flow and less spread due to that. Other indoor activities would be harder to resume, especially if they are not able to socially distance. Restaurants should be able to be open for outdoor dining for the same reason as sports. Indoor dining on the other hand should not. When eating you are not wearing a mask and are in close proximity to other people. It is everyone’s responsibility to act responsibly and with good faith. It is our leader’s responsibility to distribute good guidance and how to act.

Returning to School: Logan, 15, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA 
In my experience, the Covid-19 Pandemic has been a blur of mixed feelings, and states of unrest. I feel as though I only realize the situation, I’m in when I look at pictures before the pandemic. My first thought is always, why aren’t we social distancing in that, and then I realize my fault. When I think about school during the pandemic, I first realize how grateful I am for our situation. I’m thankful for the fact that we can all use electronics and the internet to still communicate and learn. If this pandemic had happened ten years ago we might not even have had school. That being said, the situation that my school is in is not ideal. With online learning, there are plenty of obstacles to overcome. Some of those are internet issues, not being able to do certain activities, keeping the attention of the class, and more. Although I am trying my best to embrace the online learning program, I think I speak for the whole school when I say that I cannot wait to get back in person.

The pandemic has existed in the US for months now, and we are still getting new information about it each day. As an adolescent it can be hard to understand what’s going on, especially when it seems as if there is a new policy each week for social distancing and overall protocol. Some choose the follow these rules, and others do not. As of now, that is within their rights, and I don’t think that will change in the near future. Personally, I feel that we should all wear masks and socially distance when we are around other people who are not in our bubble. I think it is the most that we can do as citizens to help reduce the amount of cases and speed up the time it takes to get back to a normal functioning world. I believe that as of now, returning to school will not be worth the risk. Since flu season is coming up, now would be the worst time to make a big shift in protocol. If I could control when to go back, I would say wait till spring and reassess then. When it comes to stores and dining, I think that the most important factor is ventilation. Because of this, I think that it is acceptable to allow indoor seating as long as there is ventilation and amble space between guests. When it comes to responsibility of reducing the spread of Covid, I believe it is the American citizen’s duty. Those in power can do as much as they can to help restrict the spread of Covid, but at the end of the day it is the individual’s duty to decide whether they follow the rules or not.

Returning to School: Lohit, 14, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA 
Throughout my 14 years of being alive, I never imagined that something like this would happen to me, yet alone the entire world. It is still hard to picture just how dramatically one virus was able to alter not only this year, but the ones to follow. But, with the rise of this pandemic, schools were one of the staples of life that got heavily affected, with classes being moved to online via applications like, Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Overall, in my opinion I prefer doing online school rather than being in person. For starters, doing remote learning allows me to wake up significantly later, going from 6:30 AM to 8:30 AM. This one single change has allowed me to be a lot more refreshed and energized during the start of the day, rather than being stressed about the traffic and commute to school. Another change that has arisen since virtual school, was being able to have more breaks throughout the day, which are very much so needed. These breaks came due to asynochous classes being pretty prevalent, allowing the students a chance to either take a break during that period, or do work. Although there are many benefits of doing online school, there are some drawbacks to it as well. For example, some teachers find it appropriate to give out a lot more homework than they normally would, giving the excuse that we have more time since we are at home. Even though this may be true, teachers need to realize myself and other students are being cooped up in our rooms doing online classes, making it hard to be motivated to do the assignments, since we just stare at a screen all day. Looking back at the past couple months of online school, these changes are about what I expected for this dynamic learning system. This is mainly because schools have very little control outside of their campus’s reach, and in return get heavily impacted by the actions of education boards. Also, schools don’t hold any more power in our home lives, so those were expected to stay the same and experience no real school effect by this pandemic. Overall, while this may only be the start of online school, it sure does have its numerous benefits and frustrating downsides.

During this global pandemic, there have been questions and concerns that have been put up for debate, whether started by the Internet or politicians. One such current debate is whether or not we should wear masks in public and social distance. To this debate, my answer is an unsurprising yes, that we should wear masks and social distance. Masks should be worn because they help keep you and others safe, by stopping the spread and entering of germs via your mouth and nose. Social distancing also goes hand in hand with wearing a mask, as you want to be 6+ feet away from someone to ensure that their germs don’t spread through, causing a possible chain reaction. In terms of returning back to school for events like mass, assemblies, and sports, I personally don’t believe that it would be a good idea. This is mainly because it will be hard for schools to successfully enforce all their students to wear masks due to teenagres just wanting to have fun and being reckless and careless in the process. Another debate that has sparked up is on whether or not restaurants should be allowed to have indoor seating for their customers. Personally, I think that restaurants shouldn’t be having this type of indoor seating, especially when takeout is an option in so many places. Although restaurants can try to place groups as far away from each other, there is only so much space they can sit apart, in a confined building.
Since separating people takes up more space, it would mean that other people wouldn’t get the same opportunity to sit inside the restaurant, which would be unfair. Looking at the bigger picture of this pandemic, it’s clear that the government and the citizens are both responsible in aiding to get rid of this vile virus. The government can keep creating new laws and rules, in order to help those dying, but rules will not mean anything if the citizens don’t follow them and actively do their part. It is first important to realize that our actions affect others, and if we choose to not social distance that our actions will not only have devastating consequences on us, but everyone around the world because as long as one person has the virus, an outbreak is potential.

Returning to School: Mason, 15, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA 
It is essential for all people to wear masks in public areas. This is not only for the safety of the person wearing them, but it protects others around you as well. Wearing masks combined with social distancing would end the entire COVID-19 pandemic. I have people in my family who got the virus because of other people not wearing masks and distancing to prevent the spread of Covid. Sometimes people do not even know if they have it, but that does not mean they can’t transfer it to someone else and possibly kill them because of it. I believe that schools should return with proper safety measures, only in small groups. Large group gatherings are an awful idea, even if people have masks on. Sports, such as tennis, bowling, and other sports that do not require up close interaction with others should return as well.

One of the reasons this virus got so out of hand as well was because underestimated the negative impact of the virus. They believed that it was just a regular sickness. My grandpa got the Corona Virus, and claimed it was one of the worst things he has ever felt and had as a sickness. People just think it is not a big issue, until they are the ones with it, not knowing it they would be able to push through it. I believe small gatherings of about 6 people, wearing masks and distanced 6 feet or more is fine, especially if they are not traveling or seeing anyone else for the most part. However, people who are partying are being selfish and not considering their impact on others. This is why all people should wear masks.

Returning to School: Matthew, 15, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA 
As a high school student amidst a life of restriction and no physical interaction with friends whatsoever, life has been extremely difficult. Covid-19 has prevented us from physically interacting with friends and family. Social life is important for us adolescents because this is what shapes our identity, lives, and future. Even though we cannot connect with our friends physically we can connect virtually and be safe. But it is not the same. For me, during this time of quarantines, I was able to learn new things, like cooking, driving, stitching, and things I never thought I was going to enjoy. I feel that the quarantine allowed me to open myself to try new things. One other benefit of quarantine and lock down was that it helped me grow closer to my family and develop better relationships with them.
Currently, the city I live in is still under restrictions. So, school is still online. One challenge that I experienced is technical difficulties since my whole family is at home using the same network. Another challenge is that I cannot stop by my teacher’s office for help. I also had trouble managing my time well as I was wasting time. But I was able to fix this because I was able to create a school-like environment at home which gives me the motivation and mindset that I am present in school. This was able to help me improve my confidence, time managing skills and overall morals. The technical difficulties are still a problem but fortunately, all my teachers are understanding. I was hoping that by the end of the summer after my freshman year, we would be able to get back to school and physically interact with my friends and meet my new teachers for my sophomore year. But unfortunately, we are still under lock down and quarantine still continued.

An ongoing problem now, during the pandemic, is the fact that some people refuse to wear masks or some sort of face covering. I feel that it is vitally important to wear masks and social distance because as of right now, this is the only way to potentially slow down the spread of the virus. I feel that we should not return to school with larger gatherings whether it be assemblies, mass, and sports. I believe that we should only start physically interacting with other individuals after the virus has completely died out and we have a working vaccine. I feel that some people do not take this seriously, and do not realize that what they are doing can harm themselves and potentially other people. To answer the final question: should restaurants be allowed to have indoor seating for its customers, I feel that they shouldn’t. This is because I feel that closed spaces, and the continuous sharing of plates and utensils can increase the spread of cases,  especially if they do not wash it properly. So, to sum up my opinions, I feel that lockdown rules and restrictions should only be lifted after we have a working vaccine, and the virus has completely died out. I believe that it is our responsibility to wear masks and to socially distance to stop the spread of Covid-19.

Returning to School: Matthew W., 15, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA 
My drawing represents my feelings about the people of United States. My drawing also represents my feelings on television news. My drawing is also representative of individuals that are feeling trapped. My drawing also represents the ideals of our society and what people hide. Lastly my drawing is about how in control people are of their lives.

Returning to School: Nicholas, 15, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA 
The COVID-19 pandemic really changed the lifestyle around California as many startedto stay inside, which later on evolved into an outright quarantine. Now that some time has passed and others are starting to adapt to these difficult environments, schools are starting to open up. I personally was expecting to return to school earlier, but then the news got worse, so it was delayed. The changes of having someone go only twice or three times a week I feel is smart, as it limits the risk of exposure to others. I was hoping to go a little more often, but I understand the caution the school has taken. I have started packing my bag as well as getting prepared to go next month and see my friends again.

In response to the recent debate for masks, I feel that people act really dumb when they say that they do not have to wear a mask if they do not want to. Not only do they risk exposure from others, but they also harm others around them without a mask. We should also obviously social distance as it is just helpful to reduce the spread. Many people act as if COVID-19 will magically go away now, but they have to realize that we still need to take precautions as the virus is still very real. I also disagree that there should be large gatherings such as sporting events because with such a tight area of people if one person has the virus and attends, they spread it to everyone around them. For restaurants, I feel that it depends as if they take the necessary precautions such as filtration and checking beforehand, they could potentially reopen inside. Even though they could, many will not take the right precautions and it could spread even faster. One really good example of reopening-up is that if we do not take the right precautions and just open everything up, it will spread even more, just like it did in China (second-wave almost). Everyone is responsible for the spreading, especially world leaders as they set the example for everyone. Overall, I am still worried that COVID-19 could spread more (Now with over 200K deaths), so I will be cautious, and I know many others will as well.