Students Share Their Story and Give Their Opinions About The Covid-19 Policies That Were Placed At Redwood

By: Megan Yang and Isabella Valero

Covid-19 takes a stab at Redwood High School students, causing them to miss school and forcing them to live life outside of Redwood.

Redwood High School students returned for the 2021-2022 school year in person while facing Covid-19 restrictions, policies, new variants, and a rise in case numbers. Many students have contracted the virus.

Ella Bangi ’24, says, “It was nerve racking catching Covid-19, although I was very fortunate that I didn’t have bad symptoms.”

The worst part for Bangi, was “the first day with [her] headaches and being away from [her] friends.” Recieving Covid-19 “felt like a migraine and a cold” to Bangi and “has not really impacted [her] life.”

Even though, Bangi had been out for 9 school days, Covid-19 “didn’t affect [her] grades, but [her] dance grade went down due to it being a class about participation.” With the new Covid-19 policies at Redwood Highschool, Bangi says, “I think [they] are working.”

This was Bangi’s first time getting Covid-19 and to continue staying protected, she is “going to keep on doing what [she] normally does, keeping [her] distance, wearing [her] mask, and [staying] home if [she’s] not feeling well and hopes others will do the same.”

Matthew Bartolo ’24, says, “Covid-19 was absolutely one of the worst experiences I went through…This was my first time… [and] it was the worst feeling in the world other than when I broke my wrist.”

Covid-19 affected Bartolo’s school work by “sending [him] back in many ways. Such as missing class lessons, having to catch up online, and dealing without the help of [his] teachers.” Bartolo had also “missed a whole unit in Biology because [of his] absence.”

The policies Redwood has implanted “are trying to be enforced, but knowing the students at our school, they will still not follow them,” he says.

Bartolo had faced “chills, nausea, congestion, a scratchy throat, and migraines.” It was “disappointing [to him] as [he has] been trying [his] hardest to avoid it.”

Bartolo says, “There’s nothing I could do to make other people be safe, but I know I can change whatever I was doing wrong before.”

Jadyn Garcia ’22 says, “Covid-19 has personally affected my life with sports and school cancellations while also falling behind. My body and mental has been affected as well. I feel physically weaker now, as I do dance, weight training and swim, so it’s a lot of activities and a struggle to keep up with.”

Garcia explains that her experience was awful. She says, “I didn’t lose my taste or smell however I did get it bad for the first 3 days. I got body aches, sore throat, cough, chills and fatigue. I was also struggling to keep up with my work because I felt so beat and tired from all the symptoms but thankfully all my teachers were nice and willing to work with me.”

This was Garcia’s first time getting Covid and states, “I knew I would get it at some point it’s pretty inevitable because the new variant is spreading like crazy…I do not think the new Covid rules are being implemented well enough in school. I still see a lot of people not wearing masks, and if they do wear a mask it’s not on properly. Although [Covid-19] is inevitable, I would still like to feel certain that school and my peers are trying to keep others safe.”

Many students are taking new precautions now because of their experience with Covid-19, such as wearing N95 masks and being more cautious of when and where they take their masks off.

Garcia says, “I would just like to say that even though Covid is spreading and is inevitable at this point, that does not mean you should stop taking precautions. Also just because young people and or healthy people can overcome and survive it does not mean everyone can. It’s about minimizing the spread.”

Emely Luna ’22 also believes that Covid-19 had deeply impacted her life.

Luna says, “It really put my life on pause for me some time, but it effected me mentally. It’s hard to spend so much time with yourself alone, and not being able to really socialize or have human interactions was unfortunate.”

Although Luna explains that her symptoms were very minimal she knows that others had gotten it worse. Luna does however explain that “being home all day made me lose a lot of motivation when it came to school work. I was out for the full 10 days from school.”

VUSD’s Covid-19 policies have changed drastically in the last year. This had included moving from a hybrid online and in-person learning schedule to fully back in person. This led to enforced mask rules implemented by staff and teachers in the hope that it would keep everyone safe.

Although VUSD had made such rules, Luna says, “…VUSD leaped at the opportunity of getting kids on campus too fast…staff/administration are [not] implementing the regulations we should be having at school well at all…We should have stuck to the hybrid schedules at least for another couple years… I hope our school tries to be more cautious and rational when it comes to keeping the kids safe, and people in general safe.”

Luna finishes by saying that it’s important for people to, “empathize and understand” the importance of wearing a mask during the school day and for them to, “grasp the concept that there’s still a pandemic going on.”