Since 2020, the world has been on lock­down due to the Covid-19 pandemic, giving high school students an unusual past few years.This 2021–2022 acad­e­mic year was the first in two years to be fully in-person at Justice High School. This educa­tional shift is reflected in the students, many of whom are new to the school or haven’t been back since their fresh­man or sopho­more year.

The exten­sive quar­an­tine caused by the pandemic has increased acad­e­mic gaps and slowed educa­tional progres­sion for students. Accord­ing to Mckin­sey and Company, online educa­tion has students, on aver­age, five months behind in math­e­mat­ics and four months behind in read­ing. “I didn’t feel much of a need to be completely present in online classes and would often stay up late into the night complet­ing home­work,” said senior Andres Laborde. “[Being in-person], I was a lot more present and will­ing to complete assign­ments and notes; I felt as if I were truly learn­ing. I am much more moti­vated in-person and the qual­ity of educa­tion that I have received has improved greatly.”

Addi­tion­ally, the crucial social inter­ac­tion provided by in-person school­ing was exceed­ingly cut off during quar­an­tine and online school, caus­ing psycho­log­i­cal impacts from extreme social isola­tion such as anxi­ety, depres­sion, and a pres­ence of lone­li­ness. “Before I was able to do hybrid learn­ing in 8^th grade, I felt some­what isolated from my peers,” said fresh­man Addie Bates. Accord­ing to the World Happi­ness Report, a lack of social connec­tion from quar­an­tine and distanc­ing during Covid-19 was a great factor in a decline of mental and phys­i­cal health: “In a U.S. study exam­in­ing people’s expe­ri­ences from Janu­ary 2020 (N = 1,010) to June 2020 (N = 3,020), reports of happi­ness and life satis­fac­tion saw one of the largest declines during the pandemic.”

Coming back to in-person school reduced the social isola­tion expe­ri­enced by students during online school. This increase in social inter­ac­tion is exem­pli­fied by junior Daniela Pineda Salgado, who said “being back in person for the first time in 2 years has felt great because I’m now able to phys­i­cally commu­ni­cate with my teach­ers and friends, which has allowed me to grow deeper friend­ships and create a better under­stand­ing of what’s going on in my classes.”

However, coming back to regu­lar inter­ac­tion after social isola­tion also can induce anxi­ety. “It was a bit over­whelm­ing at first to adjust from being at home all day,” said Pineda Salgado, “it was strange seeing every­one back.” Accord­ing to Tulane Univer­sity, post-lock­down anxi­ety is extremely promi­nent because leav­ing the secu­rity of home can cause disrup­tion to the “new normal”.

To partic­i­pate in online school, students had to be station­ary and stay at home all day, creat­ing expanded free time or bore­dom. Conse­quently, this extra leisure time led to an increase in social media usage in many students. Accord­ing to the Inde­pen­dent Company, iPhone usage increased exces­sively during quar­an­tine and home isola­tion, “twit­ter users shared screen­shots show­ing their phone use going up by more than 200 per cent since enter­ing self isola­tion.” Students have under­gone simi­lar phone usage spikes because of the distanced and station­ary nature of online school. “My social media usage increased during online school since it was the only form of commu­ni­ca­tion at the time with friends and family,” said Pineda Salgado. “Being back in-person has mini­mized that usage because now I’m able to talk to every­one in-person and rely less on social media.” Laborde had a simi­lar expe­ri­ence with social media usage, “It is very tempt­ing to use social media when I’m at home, and being at home all the time [during online school] spiked my usage of it,” said Laborde. “Being back in-person and going out again means I use it signif­i­cantly less than I did last year.”

Coming back to in-person school allowed for regu­lar high school events to continue and unite the school commu­nity further. “I feel that it’s lovely to have all these fun school events such as prom, home­com­ing, and spring fest back,” said Pineda Salgado, “they allow us to become more involved in school activ­i­ties. I feel that this shows how we recov­ered from the pandemic as a commu­nity.” Partic­i­pa­tion in clubs at Justice have also had an increased revival because of the switch back to in-person. “It is fulfill­ing to be able to meet in person with my club­mates instead of online,” said Bates, “I have been to multi­ple school events and I feel it is great to be back in person.”

No matter its present draw­backs, in-person school has enhanced the over­all expe­ri­ence and qual­ity of educa­tion for students as it has re-intro­duced the crucial social and acad­e­mic aspects of every­day school life that were present pre-pandemic.