The return to school is irresponsible and does not account for the critical thinking that school so heavily pushes upon students. 

With Austin Beautner’s latest plan to go back to school, students would stay in the same cohort throughout the school day and be allowed a ten minute break between classes to use the bathroom and drink water, allowing only a couple of seconds for COVID-19 to spread to another person from a carrier. It’s one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard.

Trust me, if I wanted to stare at my screen in a chair for five plus hours, I’d just stay home at my desk. There’s no point to go back to school to do something I would do at home either way.

The main reason that many students may consider going back to school is because they want to hug their friends and experience those friendships in person. But guess what? We can’t. You will be able to see your friends, but must maintain social distance and abide by the rules set in place by Principal Griego and LAUSD.

Let’s be real. Even with rules, there will inevitably be those students that don’t follow these rules and decide to sneak around to see or hug their friends. 

And where will that leave the students that actually need to be at school? Possibly back at home sick by the end of the first week because some group of friends just couldn’t help themselves and hugged each other.

 And how long before someone takes off their mask and shows no symptoms, but just so happens to have COVID-19? If they’ve had it between the last three months, what if they’re still carriers for the virus? 

Getting a vaccination won’t help either, because the minimum age for a vaccine is 16,leaving students under 16 still at risk of catching the virus. 

How could some people want to go back to school so bad that they want to put their families at risk? So that they can hug their friend for 10 seconds?

I haven’t seen my friends in person for over a year, but  I still will not be participating in hybrid learning because of how irresponsible the whole idea is. I will not risk my family’s safety because I want to sit in a cold room with a group of students who to me seem more like strangers. 

Just because we’re young and are at a lower risk of winding up in a hospital bed doesn’t mean we can say the same for those we live with. It’s obviously understandable that students want to return to school but this decision seems irrational and rushed.