Jevon Li / Staff reporter
With one week left until Winter Break, students from Gleneagle Secondary school are in pain. The extension for the restrictions was announced last week, and now it is going to be effective until January 7th. The students are having a hard time with barely any real-life social interactions and are resulting into doing virtual interactions. Matt Lee (gr. 11) and Kaden Man (gr. 11) were asked about their thoughts on this and if it is a good idea to keep the students in school with the virus still roaming.
In these interviews, we find out about the students’ perspective on this whole pandemic. The 2 interviewees have opposite opinions, so we get a split side of what most students would tend to think. The common ground seems to be that the lockdown is a good thing and it will help us return to normal faster, based on what their friends have talked about.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to keep the students in school. Schools are one of the biggest reasons for the virus still spreading, there was another case in Gleneagle just last week! I think that the extension is terrible for me, but it is for the better. The virus has been around for almost a year, and we have done a terrible job at staying at home. I think this time it will be the last time we hear of the virus once we get the vaccines and all. A lot of my friends even still have parties, which is quite stupid. I do feel very drained though, my last social interaction or gathering was months ago, so now I am resulting in Facetiming most of my friends and family to see them.” Says Lee, when asked about his thoughts on the extension and whether students should still be sent to school or not.
Lee feels against the whole concept about school staying open and suggests we should move onto remote learning once again. He feels as if there should be one more lockdown for a few months until there is a vaccine and then life should be back to normal.
To conclude the interview, we asked Man if he prefers virtual interactions compared to real life interactions. “I barely get to see my buddies now. I hate this whole restriction thing, but I have adapted to it. Nowadays I’m on Snapchat and Facetime most of the time. I haven’t seen my friends for a few months, but to be honest it isn’t all that bad. I’ve spent a lot of time with my brother at home. If this is how life will be until there’s a vaccine, I don’t think I’ll do too bad.” Says Man.