This year has been life-changing for all of us. People struggling to find a job, students struggling with school, business shutting down because of the pandemic, and much more chaos happening. Although many people are already used to it, it doesn’t mean they’re happy about it, but it’s something we need to accept in our lives for quite a while.

As a student, I can confirm that it’s been a peculiar experience. It isn’t the teachers’ fault, but it’s just not effective nor fun for anyone. Believe it or not, it gets frustrating to always waking up to see a screen for many hours, learning little to nothing.

“I genuinely dislike online learning since it really doesn’t make you learn much. I would make it better by having students return to school,” said Raul Lopez, one of the many students who sides with the district to open up the school.

“I hope they’re as excited as I am. I am a senior and I want to enjoy my final year in high school. I would like to think that my peers share the same opinion about me,” Lopez said. Being a senior on this school year has really disappointed many students, since senior year is supposed to be the year you enjoy the most.

Lopez adds that online school is not working at all for him and many other students. “Safety is first, but also our education. The education system with the pandemic has been terrible. Grades plummeted and if kids weren’t showing up to class when face-to-face learning was a thing, they for sure not showing up now that it is online,” he said.

EPISD has decided to eventually welcome back students to the campus, but delays the reopening date every time. This has caused the district to receive a large amount of backlash, especially from parents.

Schools should reopen but be twice as strict with safety procedures. For example, not accepting students on campus and classrooms unless they have face mask, putting hand sanitizer entering and leaving classroom, cleaning tables before and after class,etc. There’s so many ways to make this work, and if students won’t comply, they are not welcomed back to school.