As the five year anniversary of the COVID-19 school shut down approaches, students enrolled in Mrs. Clawson’s Honors Journalism elective interviewed members of the RMHS community about what they recall about the beginning of the pandemic. On Friday, March 13, 2020, the Reading Public School district, and many surrounding towns, sent out the word that schools would be shutting down for two weeks. This call came after the appearance of the Coronavirus, or COVID-19, which was beginning to spread rapidly across the United States. Although the two weeks sounded almost like a vacation to students and faculty, it slowly morphed into a period of isolation as that Friday became the last day of in-person school. It would not be until September of 2021 that all students were able to get back to the traditional classroom.
Mrs. Haley, RMHS Guidance Secretary
What were your thoughts during the first week?
I think my thoughts were the same as a lot of people and it was great: We have a week off of school and we’ll see everyone soon.
Did you ever get COVID and how much did it affect you?
I did get COVID, but not in the beginning. It was like two years later, my husband went to a funeral, and it was post the time that everybody needed masks and he brought it home. I was in bed, it was over the summer, so it didn’t affect my work. but I was probably in bed for three or four days. I lost my sense of smell and taste for about two months. I never regained full sense of smell.
Did you expect school to be out as long as it was? Absolutely not. We expected two weeks, and then we would be back and it is kind of mind blowing how we weren’t back and somehow the school was able to the best of their ability get kids to still be in some sort of learning and in class.
How do you think online learning affected the students? It affected students immensely, socially and you can still see the effects of that and how kids interact or don’t interact with each other.
Mrs. Duggan, Multilingual Learner Teacher
Did you expect school to be as long as it was?
Definitely not. Originally, they said we would be out for two weeks. I thought, maybe it might go a little longer than that, but I never thought it would be a full year. We got dismissed in March 2020 and didn’t come back until March 2021. So that was a long, long time.
What were your thoughts during the first week?
I was a little scared and a little confused about what was happening, the severity of it, I was worried watching the news, seeing so many people starting to get sick and not recovering. We were all nervous, me and my children at home, and we just spent a lot of family time together.
What was it like returning to school in the fall?
I thought we were going back even too soon. I wanted to stay home and stay isolated. I was afraid of getting sick and I didn’t want my children to get sick. I was glad to see my students again and resume normal life activities but I was uncertain about the safety of returning to school.
Reported by Larissa Aguilar (‘25) and Mariia Martynenko (‘25)
Mrs. Buckley, Assistant Principal
What comes to mind when you think of COVID-19 in the school systems?
I think about a lot of inequities that resulted in some students not having it access to their education as much as other students did which resulted in some kids not learning as much as other kids
Do you see any differences in student behavior from before Covid versus after Covid?
Not necessarily in behavior but just like anyone who misses a substantial amount of classroom like in in-person learning they’re learning gaps, of course.
What was your experience when COVID first hit?
I was working at Chelsea High School as an instructional coach when this all happened and I was really worried about my students first and foremost because a lot of them did not have access to being able to quarantine like a lot of my students lived in an apartment with multiple family members. I remember calling my mom and asking her if i needed to buy a big refrigerator to like house food because I was really worried that I wasn’t going to be able to feed my family and then I went to the grocery store people were crazy and they were like grabbing all of the like they were grabbing all everything and then it felt like armageddon. And then my parents got covid right away in March and I was really really worried that they were not going to be okay and I had my two kids at home and they were two and one while I was teaching remotely and then I had a puppy. It was a lot to imagine but everything ended up being okay.
Reported by Gianna Bonfilio (‘25), Jane Hall (‘25), and Claire O’Brien
Mr. Cabanas, Science Teacher
What comes to mind when you think of the Coronavirus in the school systems?
So what happened with the pandemic was very revealing for a school for multiple reason–first one it was a tragedy not only in human life but the way it affected the students in their education, it was seen that the remote model of teaching doesn’t work for students, so students have to be in the classroom with guidance, doing activities socializing. From the mental point of view it was devastating. It took many years to see that now the new generations are recovering from what happened so yeah it has been very important.
Have you seen a change in student behavior from before the pandemic versus after the pandemic?
Well there was a refractory period after the pandemic where the behavior was not adequate because the students lacked their social skills so there was an increase in depression in the students, the interaction between the students, the resistance to being in the classroom, but as we spend more years after the pandemic, the refractory period is decreasing and we are seeing normal behaviors now.
Reported by Jessie Ballestas (‘25) and Giovanna Cresta (‘25)
Jack Murphy (‘25), Student
Did you expect to be out of school as long as we were during COVID-19?
No, I really thought it was going to be that two-week thing, and then we were just going to be back in school and it wouldn’t be a big deal, but clearly that wasn’t the truth.
How did it affect your learning as a student?
My attention span was almost completely obliterated after those two weeks. Going back to online school I was playing Xbox during every single class, I wasn’t doing anything, and my TikTok addiction had gotten extremely bad. Overall, my attention span was terrible to the point where l literally couldn’t even watch a movie, the duration was too long and I would constantly get distracted. For me, it was just really bad for my attention span and my focus in terms of learning was terrible.
Mr. Blanchard, History Teacher
Did you expect to be out of school as long as we were for COVID?
Absolutely not. Thought it was going to be a couple of weeks, and it was a big surprise to be out for all of the 2020 year, it was even more of a surprise that we didn’t come back full-time in ’20-’21.
How did it affect your student’s learning and how did it affect you as a teacher?
I think there’s a lot of different ways, so the obvious thing I see now is students lost a lot of connection with each other and the ability to talk or express themselves openly. People got into their own little worlds in covid and I think that’s been a real negative thing. My teaching in some ways helped it because you had to try different things and approach your lesions from a totally different angle and I feel like some of that actually helped me, but it was frustrating because you knew after a while certain parts of the student body just were not participating and there was very little you could do about it.
Reported by Morgan Brown (‘25) and Megan Fitzpatrick (‘25)
Khalen DePalma (‘25), Student
Did you expect school to be out as long as it was and in what ways did online learning affect the way you learned?
I definitely did not expect it to be out for that long. I thought it was only going to be two weeks, maybe three, and then it was like months and years, almost. And I think we definitely missed out on some important topics, like, we learned a little bit, but it was like, we were done with school by 11: 30 each day. So we definitely missed some, like, core areas in our learning.
Do you remember what you were doing when you found out we would not have school for two weeks?
I think I was either at school or gymnastics that day. I think I was at school and they were like, yeah, you’re not going to be here for two weeks, whatever. And we were like, vacation. We were so excited. And then I went to gymnastics and they were like, Oh, we’re going to close. And we had just a fun practice, because they were like, oh, like, we can’t be open anymore. And everyone was very confused.
What were your thoughts during the first week/first weeks of COVID?
The first week, I was just like, oh, this is fine. This is fun. It was, like, a vacation, unexpected.
Did you ever get COVID and, like, how much did it affect you?
Not that I know of, I am sure that I had it at some point, but I never actually tested positive for it. But, my mom and my sister both did, like a lot of people in my family did.
And what was it like returning to school in the fall?
It was definitely different. We didn’t start in August. We started, like, mid September, and everyone had to wear masks. And it was, hybrid, I think we went like, a week in a week out. So, it was better than nothing, but it was still, very hard to get used to, like, the new schedule.
What were some activities you did during COVID that were out of your regular routine? Or, like, just, what did you do during complete quarantine?
I went on a lot of bike rides. I did some baking. I remember at the beginning, we watched all the Harry Potter movies, yeah, just kind of like random stuff, games.
Mrs. Malley, Academic Coordinator, Stepping Stones Program
Did you expect school to be out as long as it was? In what ways did online learning affect the way your students learned?
I definitely did not expect to be out that long. I thought we would be back after two weeks. I would say a lot of kids ended up using Google to learn and find answers for a lot of the homework assignments.
Do you remember what you were doing when you found out we would not have school for two weeks?
Where was I? I am trying to remember, were we in school when we found out? No, I think so. Or no, I remember, like, for me, it was like, after school? Yeah, I was at practice.
What were your thoughts during the first week out of school?
I thought it was kind of fun, sort of to be out and home and home with my kids and relaxing and not having to do things like, get up early and do the day to day things that we normally did. So it kind of felt like a nice break, like a vacation.
Did you ever end up getting COVID, and how much did it affect you?
I don’t know if I got COVID. I probably did, but I kind of stopped testing after a while.
What was it like returning to school in the fall?
It was really weird, because at first we only had kids when we first came back. We only had kids with high needs coming back in. So sometimes it was kids with IEPs. It might have been kids who were in more structured programs here. And then I worked with kids who were not showing up for their zoom classes, or if they were showing up, they were falling asleep on Zoom. So I actually had kids come into the building and do their zoom classes in my room. So that was, that was good. And it was a little weird, because kids never, like, left my room, but they would be doing their zoom classes. So it was, it was good and bad for them, like, probably boring for them on some level, but also good to have them, like, in school and awake and then doing homework, yeah. And I think everyone really liked the Open Campus too, that you can kind of come and go. So, yeah, so that was really nice. I did feel bad for some of the kids when they when everyone started coming back, that you had to be so far apart physically from your friends, and like in the cafeteria or in class, you couldn’t even really talk with your friends because you’re so far away.
Reported by Megan Calhoun (‘25), Solana Maldonado (‘25) Justin Raimo (‘25) and Ava Richardson (‘25)
Deep Nandi (‘25), Student
Do you remember what you were doing when we found out we would not have school for two weeks?
I actually do. The day we got out, I was at a playdate. I went to my friend’s house and we were playing Pokemon cards, and my mom told me to come home because we had no school.
What were your thoughts during the first week?
The first week I was confused and I expected to come back after that first week. But I was also excited because I didn’t want to go to school anymore.
Did you ever get Covid and how much did it affect you?
I did not get Covid so it didn’t affect me
Did any of your close friends or relatives get Covid?
My family didn’t get Covid, but some of my friends who live nearby did. That made me think that if people so close to me got it, I could end up getting it too.
What was it like returning to school in the fall?
It was different. We had to wear masks and everything. Extracurricular activities were different. Everything didn’t feel the same at first, but it was definitely good to be back
What activities did you do during COVID that were part of your regular routine?
I would get up, get on the zoom call, and after class I would play a lot of video games with my friends. There was a popular game at the time called Fortnite that we would play.
Can you tell us your experience as a hybrid student?
My story might be a little different than some other people. When hybrid started, my parents wouldn’t allow me to return to school, so I was online for the full duration of the hybrid and I went back to school at a later date.
Did you feel secluded from your peers because of that?
It felt very different. I was the only one on the Zoom for the majority of my classes. I didn’t feel like I was learning anything. My friends were out there, and I just felt very distant from them. Segregated some may say.
Reported by David McCann (‘25), Andrew McCarthy (‘25), Maxwell Taylor (‘25) and Raghav Tiwari (‘25)
Libby Quinn (‘25), Student
Where were you when you heard you were going on a 2 week break?
I was in 7th grade gym class when the gym teacher told us that we would have a two week break due to Covid. Initially I was very excited because it seemed like we were gonna have a regular two weeks off, like an extra vacation almost.
What did you do during those first 2 weeks?
Me and my friends went on a trip to Maine and we had a fun time during those two weeks because we didn’t know it was going to end up being a global pandemic. And having that big of an impact, so initially I was very excited, happy, to have those two weeks off. I didn’t really grasp how much of an impact it would have and so yeah. And once those two weeks were up and we would see on the news and we were watching the news and we saw everything that was going on *long pause* and then we started to realize that it wasn’t going to be a short little adventure, it was going… it was serious, a lot of lives were being affected so many lives were at risk. Once we went into lock down it wasn’t very enjoyable because I didn’t get to see my friends.
