Opinions

Class of 2024 has had it harder than anyone else

Nick Lolis ’24, Staff Writer|November 11, 2021

In middle school, we had an overcrowded school. At the end of middle school, we had the coronavirus. The coronavirus lingers into our lives to this day. We’ve had it pretty rough, you have to admit.

I think that everyone here agrees that these past few years of school have been full of stress and hardship. We’ve all had to adapt to COVID-19 in several drastic changes to our usual school routines . However, the class of 2024, the current sophomores, have arguably had it harder than other grades throughout these years with COVID-19.

Before COVID-19 struck, I was in 7th grade. People would expect now that my 7th grade was a pretty good year. There was no COVID-19, no terrible new grading systems and no hybrid learning for anyone. There was nothing that was similar to the absolute catastrophe that would come the next year.

But there was one thing. The Coleytown middle school had a massive mold problem. Apparently, mold was growing on the walls inside the school and it was getting a large collection of staff members and students sick.

The problem got so bad that the students and staff of Coleytown middle school were sent home until the problem was solved. The initial idea was for students to do school from home.

But then, the Board of Education came up with a “brilliant” idea. They would move the entire 6th and 7th grades of Coleytown, students and staff, to Bedford middle school. The 8th grade students and staff were similarly sent to stay at a wing in Staples high school.

As I was enrolled as an original student at Bedford at the time, I can’t relate to the move from Coleytown to Bedford. However, I was in Bedford, so I can say with full confidence that the Coleytown students and staff coming into Bedford was not fun, nor was it easy.

The halls quickly became overcrowded. The schedule was changed to accommodate the new students. Classes were held in the cafeteria or the gym. There were fewer books in the library. The musical instruments were being used twice as much.

It was a disaster.

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What the class of 2024 can do is simply make their story known. They can share their experiences to anyone and everyone, and while they won’t get compensation for what happened, they will be able to share how this affected them or people they know and hopefully garner some sympathy and understanding.

— Nick Lolis '24

Naturally, the students and teachers from both schools were not happy with this change. It quickly became a topic of discussion and complaint among students and teachers. It was talked about everywhere. Despite this intense disdain, the change did serve one good purpose: everyone made new friends.

Originally, the Coleytown students being combined with Bedford was supposed to happen for a relatively short time. However, the Board of Education then made another questionable decision to postpone the Coleytown students and staff returning to their school. They’d postpone this until 2020. This sounded like a good date at the time, but quickly became even more of a disaster because of Covid. But more importantly, that would mean that the Coleytown students and staff would have to stay in Bedford for an entire school year.

I was among the people who were outraged at this. I didn’t like the fact that Coleytown students would have to continue clogging our hallways and using our resources . I wanted them to go back to Coleytown and for the whole fiasco to be over.

Then COVID-19 happened. At first, it was a relief being let off from school. But we all soon realized how bad it can be without interaction with anyone at all.

Boredom. So much boredom. We couldn’t go outside. All we could do was stay inside and either watch movies, read the news or play video games.

We couldn’t see our friends. We couldn’t eat out at a restaurant. We couldn’t see our families. We couldn’t go to the movies. We couldn’t go to a park. All we could do was sit back and watch the toilet paper run out.

Then this past school year. It was very uncomfortable to come back to school with the hybrid system. The mixed up schedule, the absolutely useless Connections classes and gym classes and the general lack of learning really did set it in as being one of the worst school years I have ever experienced.

These last few years have been stressful, especially for the class of 2024. All of the struggles with COVID-19 is off the back of a confusing and messed up experience in middle school, which still lingers fresh in our minds to this day.

But while the years of struggle that the class of 2024 has endured are now things of the past, the effects are lasting. There’s nothing that anyone can do now, but looking back, it is clear that too little was done then.