On April 26th, 2021, Weston Ranch will be opening full-time. All high schools and elementary schools will open district-wide on the 26th. Elementary schools have recently gone full-time on April 5th, starting with kindergarten to third grade and middle schoolers. With the schools opening, some parents are getting worried because of their child possibly getting Covid-19.

When the schools go four days, it could be more beneficial for students because they can get better one-on-one time with teachers. When students are online, it is harder for them to learn because if they have questions, teachers are more prone to answer them better and teach them in person rather than online. Since adjusting to the 2020 Pandemic, students have struggle drastically when it comes to online school because they are not used to learning things from behind a screen.

Studies have shown that since the pandemic started, students learning in school have dropped. This is because if students are at home, they are most likely to sleep through classes. After all, they are not at school sitting at a desk anymore. If not sleeping through class, students are either on their phone scrolling through social media and not paying attention in class or watching television being sidetracked. As daycares have closed and students are home 24/7, they are now watching their younger siblings, which is another reason they can be too occupied to be doing school work.

Opening schools up full-time can help the kids who are living in toxic households get more time away. Right now, we are only hybrid learning that gets students away from their homes two days out of the week. This can be extremely helpful to those students because being in a toxic environment every day for a year straight, not being able to leave the house is like a prison. Most students break from the world at school, and if going back full time means they can get away from their issues for 6 hours, it is a good thing to do.

Lastly, going back to school can uplift student’s moods. March of 2020 news reported that 80% of students ranging from high school to college have experience pandemic depression. Pandemic Depression began when the first lockdown started in 2020. Students of various ages went out every day of their lives, either with friends or family, seeing them almost 24/7 to not being able to see anybody at all because of potentially putting loved ones at risk.

Yes, going back to school can put students at risk even more for COVID-19, but since the COVID-19 Vaccine has now been opened up for teens 16 and up if more people get vaccinated, it can help them in the long run and can help everything go back to normal before the pandemic. Opening up the school’s district and having face-to-face interactions with others students can be beneficial for many of the students.