Covid has made things tough for high school students

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Last year was hard for students of all grades. Yet, as I read The Herald and watch the news the focus is on two groups, the high school seniors and the elementary students. Absent is the recognition of high school freshmen and sophomores, such as myself. Elementary students have been in school, at most, five years. We have been in the system nine to 10 years.

Elementary students have one teacher, making it easier to return to school and minimize the number of people seen in a day. Here in Monroe High School we have eight teachers. This makes it near impossible to keep the number of people any one student sees under 40. Seniors are a different situation. They are done with the public school system and most are legally adults. Their scholastic future is now in their hands. We have have two or three more years to go and with the pandemic in its current state, our future is in jeopardy.

Seniors missed the spring sports season. We will more than likely miss the fall season as well, and maybe more if the situation isn’t rectified. The seniors missed prom. We missed Tolo and will probably miss Homecoming. High school students have been forced, like all others, to adapt.

Unlike those others, we now enter some of the most difficult years of our education. Washington and the rest of the U.S. need to recognize that high school students are struggling to handle this situation too, and that our grades and future success lie threatened.

We are part of the future, too.

Derek Todoroff

Monroe