College and High School Seniors Share Their Opinions About Their Schools' Responses To COVID-19
College and high school seniors are in distress because of how COVID-19 has impacted their lives. There have only been disadvantages that have been tied to COVID-19 throughout the school year, and some are afraid for what is to come in this next upcoming semester.
On July 22, 2020, Crown Point High school held a graduation ceremony for its seniors on a football field. According to Amanda Perez, a senior from the high school, there were rules and regulations to follow.
“The requirements were the students could only buy two tickets each, and then the ceremony usually takes place in like the auditorium. But it was moved to the football field. And then all the guests and the students were required to wear masks. And then when the students were accepting their diplomas, we weren’t allowed to shake hands with any of the adults like representing the school. And all the chairs were exactly six feet apart,” Perez stated on July 25, 2020.
She said COVID-19 took away her prom and an indoor graduation that didn’t require her to dwindle her choices down to only two guests. COVID-19 made students, especially seniors, feel like they were taking steps back instead of forward.
“It kind of sucked that my whole family didn’t get to see me graduate,” said Perez. “COVID-19 ended my senior year three months earlier than it was supposed to, and I didn’t get to experience going to prom. And I didn’t even know that it would be my last day in that school. And school is hard enough in class but having to learn all the material through a computer screen made it nearly impossible to completely grasp the concepts. So I feel like being in school would've maybe been a little bit easier for ending the year.”
Although students were relieved to have a couple weeks off of school when the COVID-19 pandemic first started, they began to miss the feeling of being a part of an in-class setting. According to Perez, she learns better face-to-face rather than online because she can ask her teachers questions in-person rather than waiting for an email for three days. She also opened up about the poor communication from her guidance counselor. Because her guidance counselor at Crown Point High School was unresponsive to her request for help during the COVID-19 pandemic her job as a student was even more difficult because she had no one to turn to.
“I was definitely very stressed out without my counselor doing his job. I probably emailed him like a few times a week because he just wasn’t responding,” Perez said.
In May 2020, Valparaiso University (VALPO) decided to postpone a commencement ceremony for its graduating seniors due to COVID-19. Two senior students from VALPO, Bea Tinga and Isaiah Miller, express their opinions about the school and how COVID-19 affected their general and school lives.
“Online learning sucked,” said TInga. “There were definitely classes where you needed the classroom and everything in it. Learning from the comfort of your own house will lead you to be more distracted and less motivated to put 100% in your work. I prefer in person classes just because you are put in an environment where learning is solely the focus. I understand why some classrooms didn’t allow technology.”
“Zoom meetings don’t feel like a class, and we didn’t have that social outlet to focus on anything else,” said Miller. “As a student at VALPO, I always had 18-20 credits. They structure classes to make you work outside of the classroom, for every hour that you spend in class you spend 3 hours on the subject outside of class. COVID took away my social life.”
Both preferred to attend class in person because being online was too difficult to focus. On top of that, they had to practice social distancing themselves from friends and family. Being alone in a room with a computer made them feel secluded from the outside world, and it was unhealthy for their way of learning. COVID-19 took away their outlets to life and their preference for learning face-to-face lessons. Isaiah vocalizes his opinion about the graduation ceremony that VALPO hosts for its students every year.
“Valparaiso University is an institution that was built on morals that the staff, especially higher up, insist on shoving down students’ throats and forcing them to accept or represent in order to uphold the school’s reputation and image. Graduation is all for reputation and appearances,” said Miller.
Tinga also believes that VALPO might care about students’ safety, but support is nonexistent when it comes to students’ mental health.
“My last year at VALPO was short-lived and mentally devastating because of everything that happened. Teachers were unencouraging and unsupportive. It felt like they were obligated to care. Teachers are trained to keep up with the appearance of school. The lack of emotional support caused some depression for students. The counseling center even didn’t help. One of the professors even suggested that I should just drop out of school. They took initiative to make sure that COVID-19 would not spread within the school community. However, with mental health? No.”
Although schools should be as attentive as they can be during a worldwide pandemic, they continue to push students to the side. Perez also gives her last comment on what she thought when she heard that VALPO didn’t have a ceremony for its college seniors. Crown Point High School is located in Indiana along with VALPO.
“I heard about VALPO’s graduation ceremony not happening. So that’s pretty messed up honestly. Especially in college because you’re paying to go to college all those years and then you don’t even get to have your ceremony. Graduating college is much more difficult than high school so I feel like it should be made a bigger deal than it was.”