Parents share struggles with school during pandemic

ROCKINGHAM — Empty hallways and unused desks. This has been the story since March 2020. For as much of a transition as it’s been for the school system to adjust to the new reality — learning new technology and teaching techniques to maintain students’ attention virtually — there’s been another struggle playing out on the other side of the video chat.

“When she got there, there was nobody in her classes,” Beth Deese said of her daughter, who is a junior at Richmond Senior High School. “She had one class with one other girl.”

It was her daughter’s first year in Richmond County Schools. She was only able to attend in-person classes starting in February for two days a week, but went back to virtual when there didn’t seem to be much incentive to be in the classroom.

“She was really just like, ‘Mom, this is pointless to sit in class while everybody else it in their bed,’” Deese said.

Even when there a few students in the classroom, there are far more kids on the video chat that teachers must also be mindful of.

“We were shocked — I had no idea no one would be there,” Deese said. “I thought a lot of parents would be chomping at the bit to get their kids back in schools. It’s kind of crazy that so many are not going back.”

Deese said her daughter has always been fine academically, but struggled adjusting in the first semester a little bit. She said there’s extra pressure to be accountable for their own education when students are largely left alone to accomplish their work.

“It’s like giving them college-level responsibility,” Deese explained. “They have to totally monitor themselves but they’re only 15-16 year old.”

Counselor Nikki Wells-Smith agreed that few students have the maturity to handle learning essentially by themselves. RSHS Principal Jim Butler agreed.

“[Virtual learning] will never take the place of face-to-face learning,” Butler. “Some students will do well, but we need schools.”

High school students are now attending in-person classes four days a week, but only 24% of RSHS students are in-person for the final nine weeks. In her daughter’s largest classroom, there’s only four other students.

Concerns about her daughter’s education extend beyond this past school year. Deese said she feels like all students are falling behind academically and is worried about the looming college application process.

Deese knows that her daughter’s friends were concerned about ACT scores, which weren’t in the range they were expecting. As a parent, she’s worried about how Richmond County students compare to students who have been attending in-person since the beginning of the fall.

Despite the difficulties, her daughter enjoys going back to school four days a week. Deese credited teachers and administration who seem to be working really hard, but inherited a difficult learning situation in light of the Coronavirus shutdowns.

Virtual school is not easy

Naomi is a second-grader at Mineral Springs Elementary. She’s the only student in her class who has been virtual the entire year.

“We just didn’t want her to go back and forth, back and forth,” said Joanna Goldston, her grandmother. “We just knew it was going to close and open, and we were worried about COVID.”

Goldston said they were blessed to be in a situation where a great-grandmother and grandmother are sharing the duties of homeschooling with the assistance of the teacher, Amanda Thompson, virtually. They take responsibility for a few days of the week and are actively sitting with the child throughout the school day.

“At the beginning we cried, yelled and wanted to quit. My mother and I had to dedicate our lives to school for our granddaughter,” Goldston said. “We started and we had to finish it.”

She credited Thompson as “absolutely marvelous” and great at communication.

“The only way we survived was being organized and dedicated,” said Goldston.

The child has other siblings on both sides of the family that she gets to interact with, as well as a few children around the neighborhood, which helps with her social development.

“Honestly, adapting to virtual learning — it was a learning curve for everyone,” said Thompson.

Thompson said that her classroom began the year with seven virtual students, and is now down to just Naomi. She said at the beginning of the year, it felt like teaching two separate classrooms. As the year progressed, there was more collaboration between the virtual and in-person students, and students would always notice when their classmates were virtual for that particular day.

“They got to hear each other thinking through math problems and explain their thinking about a book,” Thompson said. “They were able to make those connections and build those friendships.”

Naomi’s family plans on allowing her back to school next year, but would prefer that she still wear a mask indoors.

“COVID’s not gone,” Goldston said. “I’m hoping that teachers get their vaccine in place. I’m pretty sure that the school is going to clean and do what they’re supposed to do.”