*Originally published in the October 2020 print edition. 

While some schools have gone back to school in person in other states and counties, most of the Bay Area schools have not, including our own school Archbishop Riordan High School. 

Many students, including myself, are hesitant to return, especially with the risks involved of returning to school while the Coronavirus pandemic is still happening around the world.  

Even though there are a few upsides of returning back to in person learning, there are even more downsides as to why we shouldn’t, and instead, continue distance learning.

One of the upsides as to why students should return to in person learning is it affords students who work better in classrooms the opportunity to do so. 

This is an upside for students to return because distance learning is a new experience for both students and teachers. Most students are used to learning in a classroom environment and some succeed better when doing so. 

With being able to go back in person, learning in a hybrid system allows students who work better in classrooms to have the opportunity to attend school and get back into the classroom environments, but with many changes involved to keep students safe. Some changes include wearing a mask at all times and maintaining a six-foot distance from other students. 

Another upside of going back to school is it allows student athletes the opportunity to participate in a sports season. While many other states have already started their fall sport seasons. California is one of the few states that decided to push their seasons back and start in January. By allowing student athletes to participate in a sport season it gives many students the chance to get back to their normal lives by participating in something that they love to do. 

While the upsides of returning to school are important, there are many more downsides as to why we shouldn’t return, and that reason has everything to do with the risk of having students, teachers, staff, and in return, their families, being exposed to Covid-19. 

Even if schools take all the right precautions to keep students safe,  there is a chance that some students will not take these precautions seriously and could cause much harm to the community. 

While most students would not be as affected by having the virus, they could pass the virus on to someone in their household that could potentially become sick from the virus and seriously harm that person. This is a serious con because going back to school shouldn’t mean risking the lives of our loved ones. 

We see schools attempting to send their students back to campus and taking the right precautions to do so, but some of these plans and precautions have already been proven to not work because a few students did not take the rules to keep a safe environment seriously while attending school during this crazy year of 2020. 

Schools around the Bay Area should not rush to send students back to campus, but instead take time to ensure that students, faculty, and families remain safe while awaiting the end to this pandemic.