New semester, new schedule: LSR7 high schools go in person

Story by Maria Smith – Co-Editor-in-Chief

   Beginning January 25th, the first day of the second semester, Lee’s Summit high schools will be back in person. Starting with two weeks of hybrid, but quickly moving to four days a week: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. This change comes after a semester monopolized by online learning. 

   Online learning implemented to protect the safety of students and teachers during the pandemic. Yet while covid numbers continue to rise students are heading back to in-person learning. 

   “I’m not that excited about going back 4 days a week. It sounds good out of context, but it’s a bit frightening that it’s a plan when we’re in this point in a pandemic. I think it’s dangerous and irresponsible for teachers and students,” Kailynn Byrne, senior, said. 

   Students are required to wear masks when in the building per the norm nowadays, and they must quarantine for two weeks if someone who they sit less than six feet from in any of their classes test positive with Covid. With the switch from hybrid, which splits the students into two groups based on last name, to all in-person four days a week it brings up a concern for the ability to social distance in classrooms. It is possible that this schedule will not last very long because of that. 

  “I don’t believe this change is going to last because the cases in Missouri keep rising due to lack of social distancing and responsible practicing,” Byrne said. 

   It is very easy to be pessimistic, especially during a global pandemic, but the four day in-person week is a gleaming beam of normalcy after almost a year of warped life due to this pandemic. One can only hope that it will work, and students will get a full semester of seemingly normal life.