Graphic by Dina Kats
By Jaden Chin and Sunny Tian
Features Reporters
There was hope in March that the sight of empty streets, closed stores, and skyrocketing cases would be a temporary reality. As warm weather and reopening phases continued throughout the spring and summer, that picture of a deserted ghost town seemed plausible to leave behind for good.
Nonetheless, in the past couple of weeks, the cases of COVID-19 have skyrocketed in the United States. Many South students facing online learning and increasing curfews and limitations are convinced that a second wave will leave all communities stuck in their homes once again.
Freshman Adrienne Lirio believes that “there will be a new wave just because everybody is so chill about the virus and we’re getting too comfortable.” Lirio thinks that because of the recent election and rallies, numbers will spike up, and currently, our president isn’t doing too much to help contain and control the spread of this virus. “I hope we go on to full lockdown so we don’t have to go through another surge of it,” Lirio said.
With the holidays coming up like Christmas and New Years, people are going to have gatherings and this could lead to a big risk of spreading the virus.
As Sophomore Jaray Liu pointed out, “because the holiday seasons are coming up and people are itching to go out from being stuck at home, I feel nervous because I live with my grandparents and that could be high risk so [I] hope it is safe.”
Sarah Gelbert, also a sophomore, spoke about the holiday seasons as well. “I think we’re gonna have to seriously lockdown again because people are not socially distancing and especially after Thanksgiving when people got together with their families, I think it’s going to increase” Gelbert resolved.
Knowing that the coronavirus continues to dominate everyone’s day-to-day lives, there are further predictions relating to the implications of activities such as winter sports, different clubs, and even in-person school for the upcoming months as the cases of COVID continue to escalate.
“I think that sports will continue as they will be safe and strict restrictions that happen. I don’t think in school learning will continue because many students are irresponsible,” Liu said.
South freshman Ryan Kam also agrees with Liu as he stated “Yes, it might continue, but if COVID cases increase, sports will stop and schools would be closed until cases go down.”
Based on the big numbers on charts, many updates and rumors about the new COVID guidelines have been circulating on social media, the news, in communities, and much more, but how informed are South students across the grades of updates on the virus?
“No, I don’t watch the news because my family and cousins watch the news so I would just ask them what’s happening,” Kam explained.
Liu doesn’t watch the news often either but he does “read articles about it to keep up to date about any COVID news.”
Although different news channels are easily accessible it can be overwhelming and stressful to sift through the seas of information constantly.
As Lirio pointed out, “I do watch the news, but not as frequently now because sometimes they just repeat the same thing over and over again and it gets overwhelming. I feel like there’s a good time to stop and there’s a good time to watch it, like it has to be a healthy amount of time that you’re watching it.”
While COVID cases continue to currently rise, there has been a recent increase in state restrictions in attempts to subdue numbers. Many people have had mixed feelings about the rules including curfews and limited amounts of people at gatherings, and Features explored students’ thoughts about the new rules put into place.
Kam felt that “[they’re] necessary because many people were going out and still having party’s and cases were increasing but many people still didn’t listen to the restrictions.”
Gelbert also agreed with the idea that people will ignore the new restrictions stating that “it was a good idea but I don’t think they are enforcing it well enough. They can be avoided.”
Lirio added to the same idea explaining how although rules are for public safety, there will always be the people who ignore the guidelines. “Some of my really close friends are choosing not to follow those guidelines and their parents don’t even know about it half the time. I just feel like it’s not smart, it’s kinda selfish if you think about it and you shouldn’t go out obviously if the governor said this right? I don’t know, teenagers are complicated these days,” Lirio said.
The governor of Massachusetts, Charlie Baker, is still pushing for in-person learning opportunities for kids in Massachusetts to more in-person learning. In light of rising cases, students shared their opinions on the new education plans.
Gelbert and Lirio felt that returning in person in the current climate was a bad idea. With so many people in one building, it would be hard to create a productive learning environment with so many safety precautions to enforce simultaneously. Lirio also worried about the risks of in person learning if mask-wearing cannot be enforced.
On the other hand, Liu believes that with “the right safety precautions it is possible,” but also thinks that it would be difficult to do. Like Lirio, he believes that it would be hard to enforce all the rules on so many people consistently.
As the holiday season, winter sports, and a return to the building for high school students lie on the horizon, only time will tell if activities will continue, or if cases will send communities backsliding into lockdown.
