With the district’s decision for students to return to school in the midst of the pandemic, a rise in COVID-19 cases are inevitable. Along with this, surrounding students, teachers, and family members have been required to quarantine. 

This is something to be expected when hundreds of people spend their days in one building, traveling from classroom to classroom, making it difficult to social distance. However, for those who’ve had to quarantine, learning from home has certainly been an obstacle, to say the least.

Students that have been quarantined have experienced a variety of complications and assets while learning remotely. The general agreement amongst those that have quarantined, however, is that going remote without prior planning had more disadvantages than benefits.

“I’m glad the school is taking this virus seriously,” junior Kaelyn Hamblen said “But it was so hard to keep up because it wasn’t truly remote learning for those who’ve had to quarantine unexpectedly.” 

While there are many students that are participating in remote learning for the entire first semester, they are doing so by choice, as opposed to those that have been exposed to the virus and had to act accordingly.

“I’m more of a hands on learner,” fellow junior Lucy Thompson said. “I never would have willingly decided to learn from home.” 

Clearly, students are finding the different learning environment difficult to adapt to. However, teachers have been doing their best to assist their students.

“One of my teachers posted his lessons online which helped immensely,” Hamblen said.

Teachers at our school definitely did what they needed to to support their students in quarantine, but for a lot of students, the struggle was still present.

“The teachers were super understanding,” Thompson said. “But falling behind during quarantine felt inevitable.”

Students found it hard to stay on top of their work despite the effort.

“The help you get doesn’t go very far because you still have to fend for yourself,” Hamblen said. “A lot of us had a hard time feeling motivated.”

It seems as if there’s really no solution, but hopefully, there will soon be a light at the end of the tunnel.