In Early March 2020 schools across the country were shut down due to covid 19 forcing all school districts to turn to online schooling. According to yalemedicine.org coronavirus AKA Covid-19 is “A family of viruses, seven of which are known to infect people.” The spread of Covid-19 was doubling, even tripling within days, killing thousands of people daily, and leaving others with permanent brain or lung damage. Since there was no vaccine at the time to stop the spread, cities, and the schools and businesses inside them, were forced to shut down immediately. No school system in America ever had to take extra precaution to any disease that caused them to shut down for over months before. 

  When schools were first shut down it was very difficult for them to arrange ways for kids to do online school. With too many apps to choose from, schools had to pick the one that best fit them, taking a longer time to actually come up with rules and regulations. Not only were the schools affected but so were parents and children. Families had to take extra precaution towards the shut down considering that many of them had jobs, elementary kids, disabled/special needs students, were less fortunate, etc. For example the schools had to be well aware that not everyone was capable of getting or having access to computers, and because libraries were also shut down they did not have access to local library computers. They also had to find a way for everyone to have the internet in order to log online once they found a way for everyone to get computers, in which they did. According to Qz “The Covid-19 pandemic hit, closing down offices and schools around the world. Millions of people suddenly needed laptops to work from home and complete classes online. Global computer sales shot up by 11% to 72.3 million units in the second quarter.” After they distributed computers they still had to help them find a way to get the internet which caused them to team up with companies like AT&T, Xfinity, spectrum, etc. 

Covid school closings did not only affect k-12 but also colleges too. Man

y schools have to slow down and even stop test takings. These college level closings took away class teaching time, opportunities for college tours, college sports, and ways for colleges to get funding. Covid-19 dropped the undergraduate percentage by 2.5% according to Best colleges. The site also says “Record levels of depression and anxiety have been recorded among college students.” College students haven’t been the only people to suffer from depression and anxiety due to covid, so have many middle and high school students. It also messes with teachers’ mentality making them overwhelmed and just as stressed as the students or even more (considering that a lot of teachers and instructors have kids of their own that make it a little difficult to teach in peace). Some students even say that online school takes away their motivation for school, and some feel as though that it’s a little bit easier knowing you got a lot of resources at home that you can use. Some even say that they get much more assignments online than in school.

Allderdice student Aiyana Crosby says that “online schooling was okay until they started assigning more assignments a day and I started falling behind. It really started to stress me out and I got very overwhelmed and I didn’t like that feeling at all. Plus I get distracted easily so some days I’m focused and on track, some days you’ll have tech issues, some days you won’t, a lot of times I fall asleep during classes and miss classes but still try to make up assignments ASAP. But I will try not to fall behind like that ever again because it scares me and stresses me out.” 

Fellow student Zhane Washinghton says that, “Online school makes me want to cry but I like the fact that I’m passing with flying colors (all A’s) but it’s also scary.” 

One of the biggest negative impacts that covid had on schools was on sports and extracurricular activities. Even though schools made a way for the Fall 2020 football season to happen (both American football and soccer) it was very hard. It took a long time to come up with procedures in order to be able for them to play. Not every school got to play though there were some that took extra precaution that decided not to play which affected seniors on sports teams badly because it was harder to get recruited if you didn’t have chances to play. It’s also been a push for the basketball team right now it’s looking like there may not be a season with the new shut down. School just pushed it back the basketball season. Not only has it been hard for sports, covid has made it hard for other extracurriculars to have after school meetings, competitions, and such more. Which affects a lot of high schoolers who wish to put those on their college resume. 

Many students feel as though they were robbed out of their freshman year and senior years in school. A lot of them never had the chance to experience high school days or prom. College students weren’t able to join or try out for extracurriculars and enjoy campus activities. Kindergarteners are surely struggling with online right now and parents can only do so much to help. Middle schoolers don’t get proper promotions. A lot of things did not happen due to covid school closings. Hoping for a better day. Stay safe and be precautious and check on these students and teachers! 

Covid hasn’t been all bad for schools though, even though the bad outdo the good. Here’s a list of things that covid do to help benefit with school closings

• Give schools a better chance to prepare for the next pandemic or if this becomes an ongoing thing.
• Gives students a better chance to attend school.
• Help older adults learn how to work electronics better.
• Allows you to work with outside resources you may be used to.
• Better contact and connection with teachers, students, and parents.
• Test optional for SAT