By Elizabeth Chen, Staff Writer

Many people caught covid because the Omicron variant is highly contagious. Students went on trips and attended other social gatherings over winter break which only increased the spread. Due to the ensuing increased absences, teachers slowed down their lessons and posted them on Canvas. With everything becoming digital and a lot of the work being completed independently, some students have ended up just staying home because they deemed it safer, as they were still able to receive their education. 

Since  many teachers and students were absent, slowing down the curriculum so no one falls too far behind was necessary. This resulted in a lot of down time for students in class, causing many to face boredom as class time was empty and purposeless. Students felt that it would be a waste of time to show up at school because they could complete all their work from home on Canvas. So, many decided to stay home and sleep in. After winter break finished and spring semester kicked in, students have also faced a lower amount of energy because  everyone first had to adjust to returning back to school everyday after several weeks off. After the Christmas feeling wore off, students faced a long semester with a seemingly endless COVID wave.

Fortunately, the Covid-19 booster has also been authorized for administration to teenagers. This, however, led to some students  missing school because of their side effects (fever, chills etc.). Teachers were also getting sick, meaning many students had substitutes. This left students confused, as there were oftentimes unclear directions and they could no longer ask for quick clarification from the absent teacher.  This also caused a lot of students to feel as though class time was pointless because all of their work could be done later, since the teacher would review when they got back. Due to the high amount of absences, campus felt emptier and was eerily quiet.

After winter break, many students were absent. For example, a lot of Juniors were absent because they caught what was most likely the omicron variant of Covid-19 meaning  those classes were even emptier than the already empty classes of other grades. Additionally,  because their friends were absent, other students were motivated to not show up to class. Extra motivation for staying home came from everything being online. There was a constant change of who was in class, almost turning into a game of seeing who’s going to be present or absent the next day.  People were returning to class while others were quarantined. Due to how contagious the new variant is, people are constantly testing, some positive and some negative, and for safety reasons some people may be quarantined and can not attend in-person classes for that reason. This also causes teachers to have to catch students up with the work they missed over the days they were absent. 

Now that the Omicron wave has died down, there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel. Students and teachers have persevered through all the uncertainty of COVID. Thank you everyone for staying strong and united. ending.