COVID Numbers Spike Students Back at Home
Students arriving to Ridgeview High School campus in late Nov.
December 14, 2020
The students at Ridgeview High School were slowly coming back on campus but as of December 3, they will no longer be attending school physically for the time being.
One of the students who was on campus before the pause was Lyriq Shivers, a 17- year-old senior who started attending school on November 16. He decided to go back, “Because it’s better and I needed the teachers help because I’m a kinetic learner meaning I need to learn hands on.” Shivers decides to encourage students to go back on campus. He says, “To just be cautious of rules and behave or they will send you back home with very few warnings.” He continues to explain that going back on campus is a good idea because learning directly from the classroom can help students understand more of the topic they are learning about. Some benefits of going to school physically is that students are able to ask aids for help, get a response right away, and there are no more distractions. Some students on the other hand didn’t find these reasons beneficial.
Mariajose Padilla, 14- year-old freshman also at Ridgeview, has a different point of view. She is currently attending online classes like many other students. She believes that, “going back right now is not the best idea. I think it would be better if we wait for everything to calm down, so we don’t risk [the] lives of anyone.” Although, she said would prefer to be on campus for her regular classes. Her opinion on whether she thinks some students need to go back on campus is, “I do think [some] students need to go back because online is pretty different than what we’re used to and everything we’re learning is new.”
Assistant Principal Jennifer Anderson, describes how learning on campus looked like. She states, She continues to describe the process of letting students enter the campus. She explains, “Every kid would come in, they’d be asked three questions…their temperature would be checked. If they answered no, they can move on. If they answered yes to any of the questions, they were pulled aside, their parents were contacted, and they were sent home. Then, there would be a follow up from the nurse to find out when they could return back to school.”
There are also rules to go along with the process. She explains that the rules include the students getting, “Their wristband, everyday has a different colored wristband, they have to wash their hands, there’s two handwashing stations,..the kids are not allowed to be anywhere on campus without an escort. Every student has to have a mask on at all times. No student is allowed to go to the bathroom without an escort.” Even though the school has done such a great job with protecting the students, schools are closing back up until further notice.