There has been many controversies on going back into a hybrid model due to the pandemic we are currently facing. There are many WHS students who feel their voice has been unheard about how they feel on being in the hybrid system. My article will be informing all the WHS students views of the hybrid learning including fully remote students and in school students.

My first question that I gave to students that are currently in the hybrid system was, “how do you personally think hybrid is going?” Now I got a lot of mixed answers.

One student described the hybrid system “unsafe and a covid infested building” and another student said that they “couldn’t be happier to be in the building and meet my teachers and hang with friends finally”. I seem to see a trend in all the answers that most are happy to be back in the building but wished other students could take covid seriously, which brings me to my next question: How do you think students are handling covid? Almost every answer was a straight up “terrible” which also I hate to be biased here but as a WHS student also, I agree. A student described, “Every time a teacher isn’t supervising I see a mask down and no social distancing. Almost every kid thinks going to the bathroom is a mask break when it is not. Half of the students try to get as close as they can during lunch, and the other half wear their mask incorrectly.” Although only two of the 15 students I interviewed disagreed. One of the two said “I do think kids are taking it seriously. I see kids all day sanitizing and wiping off their desks. I have yet to see someone with their mask off.” Next question was if the students had any commentary that they feel needed to be said. One student said, “I feel that only in some classes I feel safe. Lunch makes me feel like I have covid when I go home and when I see people take their masks off as soon as someone isn’t looking it makes me feel somewhat unsafe. I do love being back in school with friends I just wish more people took this pandemic seriously.” That was the main trend in the students responses. No student disagreed. One student had some commentary on the zoom and in school balance. “I find that it really isn’t fair depending on the class, some teachers only pay attention to the zoom kids, and some teachers only pay attention to the in school students. It can be aggravating especially when I haven’t been in school since March and in some classes I’m still sitting in front of a screen on a 45 minute zoom call that hurts my eyes.”

Next I interviewed fully remote students. My first question was how they felt about being fully remote. One student said “I feel that it hasn’t been bad despite the wifi issues in the building. I felt like I have received the same learning as the remote students.” But one other fully remote student begged to differ, “I feel like we either get no attention or all the attention which makes me feel bad for the hybrid kids when we do. I miss seeing my friends and I wish I could be hybrid instead.” The next question I asked was if there was a certain reason they chose fully remote. One student explained “I chose fully remote for the safety of my family. Due to the high risks my family has including myself” which that seemed to be a trend in most fully remote kids. One other student said “I do NOT trust those kids in that school who party every night without a mask in sight. Not tryna catch corona” which shows fully remote kids feel like they would catch corona if they went into the building.

Lastly, a question I asked for both hybrid and fully remote students was “How difficult to you find school on a scale of 1-10 after we started the hybrid model?” Averaging out all the answers it ended up being a 6. One student who gave it a 1 said, “the work amount isn’t too bad. My teachers have been very good to my peers and I, and haven’t been giving a lot of work whether we’re in the building or on the screen.” (Hybrid student). Another student that was fully remote explained “A 10. Sometimes I feel like I just don’t get what’s going on because I’m not in the building and then I get confused since I’m more of a hands on learner and then my math teacher assigns like 40 question assignments that don’t teach me how to do it either.”

In conclusion, WHS student all have different views on how the hybrid system is going and the effect it has taken on the students and their academic success.