As San Diego slowly drops in tiers, schools have begun to reopen. When San Diego entered  the red tier fairly recently, Poway decided it’s time for school four days a week, with everyone from both cohorts attending, aside from those who remain virtual.

The problem with this approach is that there will be a huge number of students congregating in one place. These are high school teenagers, who want to have fun. You can not trust them to wear a mask at all times, I’ve already seen kids taking off their masks just with the cohort system where only half the on-campus students were together at one time..

In two of my three classes, I have upwards of thirty students in my class. Some may opt out, but that is still twenty plus kids in a classroom, not counting a teacher. Most classrooms in Poway are cramped and student’s are usually huddled together, thus endangering those who are susceptible to COVID-19.

Most seniors would be gone come lunch because they have 5th period off roll, but the underclassmen are still stuck on campus, as either they cannot  drive or they still have classes. This leads to groupings of students eating together, and to eat, you need to take your mask off, which once again can endanger other students.

I’m not just worried about whether the students can handle the responsibility of wearing a mask for a full school day, I am also concerned about the teachers. Many teachers that I have had either wear their mask on their chin, like a diaper, or they just cover their mouth, leaving their nose exposed. How can I harp on students if teachers themselves, who are supposed to be our role models, cannot even follow proper guidelines? 

Going back to in person school could be a huge risk and shoot us back into the purple tier. I do not think we are ready for full days four days a week with a full class, at the very least we should keep the cohort system that way we aren’t all cramped up.