At the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year, JSerra Catholic High School went online to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Fortunately, we were able to reopen in late September, but by being in online school for 1.5 months, we lost a lot of valuable education. While our system definitely worked better than that of many other schools, it was still a worse experience than what we would have received had we attended school in person. Because of this, many other high schools in our area have cancelled their final exams, but JSerra has refused to do so. As much as I love JSerra, I believe that by having finals, students are pressured into studying information they do not know. This has already caused much more stress than usual for finals, and on top of everything else going on (especially regarding the fires), it is hurting both students’ social lives and academic performance. Because of this, I have even heard of students considering going out-of-state or even wanting to catch the virus to avoid finals. Personally, I don’t believe the system should put so much value on finals, for I believe that at a time like this, it ultimately pressures students into doing things they shouldn’t do. Thanks