By Ashton Williams, 16, Artwork by Demetric Landers | St. Petersburg Youth Farm
My name is Ashton Williams, and I am a youth ambassador at the St. Pete Youth Farm. There’s a lot of talk about going back to school, and although I’m going back, I do not think it’s the best idea.
The only reason I am going back is for me. It is way too hard for me to focus on schoolwork at home. Though cases are rising pretty much by the day and as much as I would like to go back to school if cases keep rising, they might have to close schools again.
Also, with kids going back to school, cases will skyrocket, and if a kid or teacher has it and is asymptomatic, they could spread it, and then those kids and teachers spread it around the school and their homes — there’s the third wave of COVID. Like I said before, some kids like me cannot learn online, they kind of have to be in that classroom setting, and it would be a little sad and disappointing if seniors missed their senior year again.
In all honestly, going back to school would not even be a problem if everyone just wore a mask as the CDC director said in an ABC News interview: “If every American started wearing masks outside of their homes right now, the United States could have the coronavirus pandemic under control in four to eight weeks.”
We could be back at school and work and normal if we all wore masks or just stayed inside, but it doesn’t matter; people will do whatever they want regardless. I just want to go back because I miss school, my teachers and friends.
I know they say they’re opening back up, but if in the coming weeks they decide keeping schools closed is what’s going to happen, then that’s okay too. I hope everything is more certain by that time, but time will tell.
