Staff Editorial: Students are Ruining Their Own School Year
September 18, 2020
Despite the current pandemic looking more and more uncertain than ever, it seems like life here at Glenwood High School has returned to normal. Fewer and fewer students are wearing masks, social distancing is all but forgotten, and to many students, life here is back to usual. This is the problem.
COVID-19 cases in Iowa are still soaring, and yet mask mandates are being discouraged by our governor, despite data proving the effectiveness of masks at preventing spread of the virus. Fewer and fewer students in Glenwood are wearing masks and some never even wore them from the start, believing it is their personal right. If this keeps up, cases will start popping up and spreading like wildfire, sports will be cancelled or fans will not be permitted, extracurricular activities like band and choir may be canceled, dances too, and in the worst case scenario the school will go completely online for two weeks. Students’ ignorance and unawareness of extremely crucial safeguards as simple as wearing a mask will bring negative effects on the school year, as in the case Fremont Mills High School, where they had their first positive COVID-19 cases, and now they have cancelled their football and volleyball games for this week. Could it be us next?
Social distancing in Glenwood has been practically ignored. Students are clustering like sardines in hallways, at football games, even just in their own classrooms. Some classes have so many students that desks are impossible to spread out. This is a huge problem because if just a few students get infected, there are hundreds of people they have interacted with in just a couple days. Contact tracing will be a chaotic manhunt and an outbreak could easily start. This could spiral out of control and, like in the case of the masks, lead to cancellations of everything, even in-person school.
With these factors considered, it is clear that many of the students here in the high school don’t care about COVID-19. A lot of people feel like Glenwood is so isolated from the world that it could never happen here, or they simply refuse to believe it exists or that it’ll just magically disappear after the election. Due to their negligence of current events, students are going to ruin their own school year.
Staff Vote: Unanimous
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Who cares? Let them decide. They need to learn how to make their own decisions anyways. They either get Covid or not. Let them reap what they sow.
People should realize that wearing a mask is about more than just you. If you are okay with getting COVID-19, that doesn’t mean that everyone else is. Wearing a mask protects others more than it protects you, so it isn’t right to justify your lack of a mask with “I don’t care if I get it,” because you may be spreading it to someone who does care. Take precautions, because you’re protecting more than just yourself.
Why would you blame all of this on kids? Did they start the pandemic? Did they ask to have all of these uncertainties while they were in High School? Did they ask to miss out on Prom, Homecoming, Graduation and many other events that majority of kids get to enjoy? No!!! While I understand that we are in the middle of a pandemic, these kids mental health is also a huge concern. They just want to enjoy what everyone else gets to enjoy during high school. This is a moment in their life that they will never get to re-live. At the end of the day, they are kids. Majority are wearing masks and doing what the adults in this situation are telling them to do. There is so much uncertainty surrounding this pandemic and as an adult, even I have a hard time understanding the guidelines set in place. So how exactly are these kids suppose to navigate through this, while missing out on so much of what was suppose to be some of the best years of their lives.