What is the importance of re-opening Fresno schools for the second semester? Schools are a very important part of the daily life of many students. Currently, there are 70,000 students in Fresno, and due to Covid-19 most, if not all, are doing online school.

The big question on everyone’s mind now is if students should go back to school in the second semester. There is one problem with going back to school for the second semester, that problem is the Covid cases in Fresno and the United States are not quelled, but in fact they are surging throughout the country with 142,000 cases in one day. 

School is a very important aspect and people need to go back, but at the current moment in time it is not responsible to open schools and it is urgent that students proceed with online education until the virus is ameliorated and there is no risk for the students and the teachers. 

The problems with online school 

Fresno County health officials understand the importance of re-opening schools for the children and for kids that need better education. The online system is not for everyone and there are problems with the online system at the current moment.

 It is very hard to fix the problems with online school such as: The environment that students are in might not make them feel comfortable online, the lack of motivation that students feel in distance learning, as well as the amount of stress that students feel during online school is massive. The system that Fresno Unified set up with the block schedule ameliorates the stress that students feel, but the stress grows for students who feel teachers feel the need to assign more work to make up for missed class time. If FUSD adds more classes in the school day in the second semester of distance learning, it might lead to increased stress among the students. The current online system feels like the best option to not add too much stress during this very tough time in the world. 

The problems with re-opening 

If schools re-opened in person,  it would be a very different environment than it was before, due to social–distancing rules and mask-wearing that would need to occur. The problem of the reopening system is questions about if it will be safe and responsible to re-open.  

The problem with going back in person is the variable that is the student body. There is no way to force students, and especially teenagers, wear masks throughout the whole school day. There is also a problem financially for students going to school in person due to the price of PPE for the school district, and Fresno schools are already not funded adequately. 

 Yet the biggest problem with reopening in-person school is that Fresno is in the Purple tier of Covid-19 cases. In the last 14 days Fresno had 1,911 Covid-19 cases, which greatly exceeds the red tier and puts them well into the purple (widespread) tier. It is Important to open schools, but there is not a completely safe way to re-open schools. Distance learning is the only sure-fire way to protect the people of Fresno County. 

Fresno County should not re-open schools for the second semester of the school year and should take inspiration from Fresno State University and stay online until it is completely safe. Distance learning is very tough for the students and teachers, but it is an important step in keeping everyone safe. There is no need to rush re-opening of schools because it will just lead to people getting sick and possibly even worse. Fresno should instead focus on helping the students with distance learning and help them mentally.