Well, you’ve heard it yourselves, folks. That’s right, aside from elementary schools, New York City schools have closed down completely once more, due to the rising number of Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases.  

Now, is this decision a good, or bad thing? If all schools had remained closed, I’d say it was a good thing. However, elementary schools have reopened, so I no longer support this side.

There is absolutely no reason why elementary schools should be open, while other schools aren’t. Yes, I understand that young children need in-person stimulation, but how is that fair to the thousands of other middle and high schoolers, who are probably desperate to interact in a classroom? 

That’s just it; it’s not fair. If people genuinely wanted to control the spread of Covid, they’d close all schools for good for a few weeks, on top of shutting down other places. You can’t just say we’ll close all schools for a couple days, and then only open certain ones. 

Like I said earlier, I understand that kids need in-person, but in my opinion, young children don’t help stop the spread. Too many of them won’t wear masks for a long period of time, and if they do, it’s not properly. You also can’t force young kids to not touch people and things, it just won’t work. 

On top of the school issue, of course there’s people who have traveled and still plan on traveling for the holidays, which surely can’t help stop the spread. All of these factors will only mean more time spent isolated inside, instead of back to the normal life we all want. 

Nick Martinez, WJPS junior, said, “NYC schools will definitely reopen, but it seems to be in the more distant future. If they do manage to reopen, it won’t be the same due to all the aspects that being in-person offers compared to online.”

WJPS junior, Akiah James, said, “At this rate, I don’t think it’ll be the same for a long time.” 

I agree with both statements, because I’m sure by now we all realize that no one really knows what they’re doing anymore. Everyone is just going with the flow, and hoping for the best. We don’t know how things will be once vaccines are distributed, and things slowly reopen, but what we do know is this; things will forever change because of COVID-19.