It is now the third week of December and around this time, the school would have had their students back in the school building with the hybrid model. 

As unfortunate as it may sound, the school administration made the correct decision.

Academically, there are some down sides in continuing remote learning. Students are asked to continue to excel in school when everyone around them is struggling to maintain a job or pay for necessities. Ultimately, that leads to lack of motivation and stress that create a negative impact on students’ grades. 

According to NPR, attendance and engagement in online classes has created a struggle for students and an impact on their grades. It is a small number of students that are suffering greatly but those students cannot be ignored. 

Even so, public health needs to continue to be the main priority of this pandemic.

If school officials would have decided to go back in-person, there would be an inevitable spike of COVID-19 cases in West Chicago. Especially the week with the aftermath of the Thanksgiving holiday and Black Friday. 

According to the Associated Press, the U.S. has reached over 3,000 deaths in a single day. That’s way more deaths than the attacks of 9/11 or D-Day. 

The death toll of 9/11 was 2,977 and the Normandy invasion during World War ll was 2,500.

On top of that, there have been one million new cases of COVID in the span of five days and more than 160,000 new hospitalizations. 

The U.S. is in a worse state than it was back in March when the lockdown first began. Winter has not even started and this is how the U.S. is entering the upcoming season. 

The simple act of prioritizing West Chicago’s public health is the best decision the school administration has done. We cannot afford to enter winter in a horrible state.

It is clear that everyone was looking forward to the hybrid model in December. The frustration of teaching and learning over a computer screen is a difficult task.

We’ve got to continue to push forward through these difficult tasks because they will pay off when this pandemic is over. 

One day students will be roaming around the school hallways and engaging in class but for now we need to work to get there. We do that by following safety protocols.