During 2020 and 2021, when the coronavirus was at its peak, it changed the lives of many. Students fell behind on schoolwork, and many adults lost their jobs.
Even students and teachers at PTHS experienced great adjustments to their lives.
Senior Dominic Randall is one of the many students who believes he had about two years of high school taken away.
Randall stated, “I wasn’t in school from March 13 to the last day of sophomore year. I lost out on that year of socializing in school by being online.” While Randall’s school life was affected, he stated his mental health also declined a great amount.
“I didn’t get to see my family or friends much because I was cooped up in the house all day. Being cooped up makes you start to question yourself and you see a different view of yourself when you’re in the house for a year and a half,” Randall explained.
Zoey Yeager-Rigby, a senior at PTHS, also said that doing things online due to covid-19, also made her life harder.
“I wasn’t used to doing things online. I was used to doing stuff on paper. There were always internet issues and the teachers didn’t know how to respond to it, which affected the students as well.”
Covid-19 not only changed the ways school had to teach or mental health, it also affected teachers’ personal lives.
English teacher Sharon Spada stated that she loved having more “family time” at home with her kids, but also that it was hard keeping kids’ attention during google meets.
“Honestly I really enjoyed having my children at home with me, but when I had to go to school and leave them at home, it began hard for me. However, I loved the family time.I felt that the transition to being online was very easy. However, keeping students’ attention was very difficult because a lot of them would get on the meets and then fall asleep.”
Spada also said that she thinks her students’ mental health has plummeted from before and she has noticed a great change in behavior. She stated that she thinks her students are “scared of the unknown and it makes them insecure.”