BRHS Needs to Go Virtual

Here's Why:

1. In two days (Jan 1st to Jan 3rd) BRHS has recorded 21 positive cases. This number will exponentially increase as the rest of the week's numbers are recorded based on how the virus spreads. Many students depending on their living situations at home or needing to attend school to learn, cannot afford to fall sick.

2. The school's plan for students who should be at home, quarantining because they or their family members tested positive, is ineffective. Parents are concerned that the open virtual platform is insufficient to meet their children's education needs. Students on the google meet have no means of communication with their teacher, and in fact, teachers have been instructed to turn their volume off so that there aren't any interruptions from the virtual students. However, if we were all virtual, then sick students don't have to worry about not being able to participate and ask questions.

3. The students in school are simply not getting the necessary amount of learning that they need. BRHS is cutting school days in half to eliminate the possibility of coronavirus being spread during lunch when students are unmasked. This isn't feasible as students have midterm exams approaching at the end of the month. If we aren't getting the proper education required to prepare for midterms and teachers aren't getting enough time to teach everything needed before midterms, they shouldn't exist. At this point, teachers are cramming lessons in, skipping topics to save time, and for all the students know, they might have to sacrifice many other things before the end of the month. 

4. Some parents may be concerned that virtual learning doesn't equate to what can be achieved in person, and here is why it is a better alternative to what we have now. The current half-day schedule limits what students can learn between 7:20 in the morning to noon. Teachers cannot successfully teach with 25 minutes in a class period. A complete virtual school day equates to teachers teaching at their own pace, students asking more questions, taking more time to understand the covered topics, and overall doing better on assessments and exams. If students are getting distracted virtually, teachers can make lessons more interactive to ensure that all students are paying attention; this isn't a problem.

5. Again, with midterms coming up, students need time in school and home to prepare. With the coronavirus raging across the school, in which some classes have absences in the double digits, students are falling sick and missing out on effective teaching, and not able to study for the exams at home since they are too ill to do so. By going virtual, the omicron coronavirus variant won't trample the student body in its wake and allow for students to prepare for their upcoming exams. 

The safest option for BRHS is to switch to virtual learning for the reasons listed above. There is no reason not to! Students' education, physical health, and mental health are all impaired because they are sent to school to only discover a week later that they have to quarantine at home for multiple days with COVID-19. BRHS should adopt virtual learning to ensure midterm exams run smoothly without complaint. After midterms are over, depending on the COVID situation, our school can reopen without worry.