The sun shines high in the sky. Annet wakes up fresh and happy. Birds chirps and tweets reverberate in the air. The day is finally here- Annet is going back to school.  She is unable to hold herself any longer. Hearing the distant rumble of her school bus, Annet grabs her mask and her backpack, and hollers, “Mom! I am going to school. Don’t you worry. I am well protected in my mask as I get to school.” Annet has no time to notice the look of concern on Mom’s face as she races to the waiting school bus.  

Annet’s heart beats rhythmically as the bus takes the last turn. The iron gates of the school glistened in the morning sun.  Annet feels her heart thump, but  tries hard to breathe softly through her mask, to prevent her glasses from fogging. As she steps on the ground of the school, she has the desire to shout out. “Hey school, here I come!”. Wincing at the  bright lights of the classroom, Annet feels overwhelmed as she is greeted by high-fives and hugs from the dozens of friends.”“Welcome back, Annet!”shouts her friends. “Hey! Wear your masks!”  Annet cries out as loud as she can could, noticing her classmates with no masks to protect themselves. But, her voice fades out to the clamor in the classroom. “Guess what, Annet! We have a group activity to complete before Ms Rodriques, the Science teacher, comes in,” says Jane and Victoria, sounding quite excited. In  a surge of enthusiasm, Janet  rips the mask off her face and begins   experimenting with the plants. All three stand close to each other throughout and the rules of social distancing are forgotten. Life seems so much fun but. Covid restrictions seem as distant as the dead.

The current issue facing schools is that students are not following the Covid guidelines completely. Students are getting exposed and spreading Covid-19 to their family. At the highest risk are seniors, or grandparents who may be are immunocompromised in the home and have a greater high chance of getting Covid from the student, which would not be great as they will have more bad symptoms. Moreover, people experience dry cough, or aching in the body. Following this, people plan on getting tested for Covid and waiting wait for the results to see if they have any indications of Covid-19. According to the observation I made, “students are touching each other on the stairways, wearing masks improperly, touching each other's hands, and in close contact with people when playing sports or talking.” (School Observations).  Additionally, it has been bad since kids don’t follow these and the cases go up more than a million everyday. This is important because Covid is not slowing down at all and more cases come up everyday which is not great for the world as new variants will emerge that will have a stronger impact on people with even worse symptoms, that may close the school and could switch to online schooling from home. 

How safe are the girls?  The new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has caused a global pandemic of the disease Covid-19. Covid has been found to be much more severe than ordinary flu, affecting not only the lungs but also the liver, heart, kidneys, and brain (“Masked” 1).  Compared to adults, children are less susceptible to the virus, and an attack of the illness is usually mild . However, schools were closed during March 2020 affecting more than 1.5 billion students around the globe  But the closures of schools affected children adversely. Schools reopened in April and May. Hence, “ On a global scale, face masks have become an increasingly important part of national strategies to fight the current corona pandemic” (“Masked” 1). “Given that school closures already have come to an end, or will have to end eventually, the question of wearing face masks at schools during the next phase of the pandemic is heavily discussed, particularly, where new cases pop up in spots of waxing and waning infections, or in some states, in the form of additional waves of infection.” The effectiveness of wearing masks is being studied and researched. Based on this, it’s always better to abide by the Covid protocol of wearing masks and observing social distance in schools. So, it would be most ideal for Annet and her friends to keep their masks on and to observe social distancing while in school and not get carried away. This call for safety measures applies to all schools. If each of us are careful, to a certain extent the virus can be kept at bay. After all a Covid-free world is what we all want.