Writers: Saylia Moo, Pa Cheng
Recently the Minnesotan governor, Tim Walz, announced that schools will decide their fall learning plans. This means that every individual school in Minnesota is able to decide if they will continue with distance learning, have in class learning, or some sort of hybrid. Of course cases are different in every city but that doesn’t change the fact that the pandemic is still a very serious and ongoing issue.
Pa: The pandemic began around April, a week before spring break was about to be in place. I, personally, as a junior at the time, was thrilled to be having a few weeks off from school. In my mind it was like, “eh whatever, I’ll return to school soon enough.” I was wrong. The pandemic then stretched over weeks and here we are in August. As we come closer to the school year, thoughts about returning to school terrifies me. Have you seen how many people are careless about this issue? Because of that, deaths and cases of people being hospitalized have skyrocketed. I’ve heard countless stories of close and distant relatives of mines losing loved ones to COVID. Not to mention, we even lost one of our school board chairwoman, Marny Xiong. Think about the younger children. The kindergartens. How are parents able to trust schools when 4-5 year olds love touching everything they see? Kids taste, touch, and put their hands everywhere and anywhere. It increases chances of getting COVID. Even though covid affects older people at a higher rate, there’s still a high chance it could affect a younger healthy person who’s “less at risk of covid”. Besides the deaths, remember how there was a protest against stay-at-home orders? It was a rather unneeded protest but I get where they’re coming from. People want to return back to their normal lives. How will you do that if Tim Walz lets school decide on how they want to return back to school?
Saylia: Not to mention, many families are faced with language barriers, thus causing them to be in the dark about COVID and what’s been happening in their communities. Even families who do know about COVID, they aren’t aware of how huge the impact is. Some schools have already had students return back, making the cases immensely go up. We probably can’t return to our normal daily lives if Tim Walz doesn’t change this. What the CDC is saying, isn’t even being taken in consideration. The CDC is what keeps you safe during this time, but how are we going to stay safe, if no one is listening to the CDC. I understand how hard virtual learning is for many students but it’s the best option as of now. This just means school have to do a better job at providing aids to their students, whether that’s providing better access to wifi, or handing supplies needed for class and to be able to succeed in general
Letting schools decide on how they want to continue with education will only cause more trouble to the ongoing pandemic. Thinking about, letting this decision to continue will only contribute to higher deaths, puts everyone in school in danger (especially little ones) and we probably will have to adapt to our new lives with a mask and 6 ft precaution for a while. Although it seems difficult and impossible, some ways to get Walz to rethink his decision is to call your representative. A more direct way to have impact is by emailing your school administrators. Also creating a petition never fails.
About the writers:
Pa (she/her/hers) is a rising senior at Harding High School. She was born in Thailand but raised in America. Pa spends most of her time working with her community but also advocating for what she believes in. Pa was part of the 2019 Summer Youth Organizing Fellowship Program before moving onto the Youth Action Team and then returned in 2020 as a Youth Leader. As a YAT member, she was one of five youth to facilitate a series of mental health workshops for her peers from 2019 to 2020 and worked to compile a zine of youth voices around the pandemic. Outside of community work, Pa spends her time outdoors, playing sports, and traveling.
Saylia (she/her/hers) is a rising senior at Highland Sr. High School. Saylia is a Karen immigrant from Tham Hin refugee camp in Thailand, who immigrated to the United States in 2008. She was also part of the 2019 Summer Youth Organizing Fellowship Program before moving onto the Youth Action Team. Like Pa, she was also one of five youth to facilitate a series of mental health workshops for her peers from 2019 to 2020 and worked to compile a zine of youth voices around the pandemic. Outside of community work, Saylia also enjoys spending her time outside, being active, and painting. Saylia hopes to operate a health clinic or help set up a hospital in the refugee camps in Thailand.
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