To the PCVS Principal, Superintendent, Board of Education, and Freeholders

As students of PCTVS during the pandemic, we have been experiencing issues. First of all, students are heavily exhausted with the amount of time and effort we have to put in. Most schools in New Jersey have schedules that are easily adjustable and not eight hours long. In PCTVS, most students who have their own employment are in school or attend virtually and sit in front of a computer screen for 8+ hours or more with the overload of assignments. Many students complain of not being able to keep up with work or even have time to themselves. During this pandemic, we are struggling more than we have struggled before the pandemic. Nothing has been made easier, except more and more rules are put upon us, which exhaust us to the point many students don’t even have to energy to continue. 

Also, our remote Mondays were taken away from us, which would help us review work or catch up. Students have been having a hard time adjusting without those Mondays, and constantly sitting in front of our Chromebook for more than eight hours straight hasn’t been helpful mentally. Students are also not comfortable turning on their cameras. It’s a personal invasion of privacy. Many aren’t in a comfortable environment to turn on their cameras and show their surroundings. 

There have also been concerns about hybrid students where cases go unreported and not emailed to students or guardians to determine if the school is safe or not. Many students have been going virtual for that reason, and with the constant addition of rules, it isn’t fair. 

With this petition, PCTVS students ask if schedules can be more lenient and less stressful and the amount of work we have to do; students are on their chrome books the whole day, and that is mentally and physically draining. Governor Murphy has mentioned that cases have been rising. With the stress of family members having the risk to get Covid-19, students have weight on their shoulders from these overbearing, strict guidelines and schedules. We ask again that PCTVS students' schedules are less stressful, and remote Mondays are returned to us, keeping our privacy and having the choice to turn our cameras on or off. 

Thank you.