As Park’s plan to do full-time distance learning comes to an end, the hybrid model at 25% is beginning. This means that students whose first initial of their last name falls between a certain range will be going to in-person school one day out of the week.

A small but decent portion of students returned to in-person learning Oct. 26. This raised some questions and concerns for teachers and students who are going to hybrid and continuing distance learning.

As COVID-19 cases are still on the rise, it’s in the best interest of everyone’s health to cancel the plan. At Park, there are a number of elderly staff who may or may not have health issues or live with someone that does. This is the same for students. With this in mind, even hybrid 25% isn’t such a good idea. 

According to the CDC, the following are things that can cause medium risk for COVID-19: participating in in-person learning and some participate in virtual learning, alternating schedules, some mixing of groups of students and teachers across school days and minimum sharing of objects. Park is following through with these risks. Knowing this, people are at medium risk of catching COVID-19 and have a higher chance of going home and spreading it.

The administration has also said there will be only two people maximum in the bathrooms and to ensure this, signs have been put on stalls except for the ones that can be used, students are also supposed to clean their area after class. This is supposed to decrease interactions between people in the building and keep touched surfaces clean to decrease chances of bacteria being passed on.

Managing the hundreds of people in the building from the people in the bathroom to cleaning up after every class is unlikely to work. It sounds unrealistic for there to be monitoring of the number of people in each bathroom. Students are sneaky; they can and will find a way to get in the bathroom with their friends. As for cleaning up, there is definitely a chance of some cleaning not happening, as students can be forgetful or just not care at all.

Staff themselves are very confused as to what is supposed to be happening for hybrid as I have seen teachers struggle to answer questions. They are unsure as to how things are going to go and are unable to answer some student’s questions.

I have noted my teachers saying, “I’m not sure” when asked something about hybrid learning. Teachers are unable to answer certain questions, as they have no clue as to the logistics of the guidelines set by the administration. This raises a lot of concern as students look to their teachers for the answers they need. When they’re unable to answer, it shows the lack of preparation made by the administration.

When it is all said and done, Park’s hybrid 25% plan is imperfect, moderately thought out and will likely lead to it being canceled from people getting sick. For the benefit of everyone, hybrid should wait until we see fewer COVID-19 cases in our county.