On April 13th, RCHS students were officially allowed back on campus. Finally meeting state guidelines, the school district could have students come onto school grounds into classrooms and learn in person. The district sent out surveys to all students whether students would be attending school in person or remotely. 

From what it seems like, a majority of students decided to stay home. A small number of students decided to go learn in person for hybrid and go to school on their scheduled days. In total, about 40 percent of students chose the hybrid learning format.

There was definitely a mixture of emotions with the different choices. Each student had something different to say about the option of going back to school. 

RCHS senior Cevanna Gallegos is staying distance learning, and she said, “It really didn’t seem beneficial to go back in person with so little time left in the year. I knew that most people would be staying home as well.” This was Gallegos’ main reasoning for staying home and learning via Zoom, which seems to be the case for other students as well. 

Senior Olivia Peats also had something similar in mind as Gallegos. Peats said, “The school year is almost over, and I got used to distance learning and I feel like, for the most part, a lot of other students feel the same way.” Similar to what Gallegos said, Peats said she feels as if most will stay home which encourages her to want to stay home even more. 

This does play a factor in students’ decisions to go back to school or not, maybe worried about who will be attending, whether they will be “lonely” or not know anyone. 

Peats also said, “I don’t feel like it’s safe to go back because everyone’s most likely going to hug.” While many students decided to stay remote because they felt their friends would also not be on campus, others chose to stay home because remote learning is working well for them.. 

RCHS senior Sage Camacho has a different output on it and feels a little differently than other students. Camacho said, “My main reason would have to be that I do a lot better at home and that I get assignments done on time. When I was at school I would lag a lot and wait til the last second so being home makes me more motivated.” 

Everyone’s a little different when it comes to learning, some struggle a lot staying at home, but there are also people who tend to do just fine working from home. 

After having to stay home for a year and not attend school physically, it created a whole new lifestyle having to do a lot more through technology. Remote learning became the new normal, changing a lot of things for everyone, including schedules and routines. Staying home for so long and learning virtually gave people the chance to do things at their own pace and work on their time more. RCHS junior Angelica Martin said, “With only going back to school for 5 weeks, I feel like it would just completely switch up my routine.” 

Martin said she relies on her routine and became more comfortable staying at distance learning, which was her main reason for staying home and finishing the school year online. 

All students felt differently about going back to school, all with valid reasons. It gives a lot of perspectives that learning from home can be very beneficial to some students. The timing of when schools were able to open up did impact whether students decided to attend school or not, but things still ended up working out for everyone, whether it be going to school in person or finishing the remainder of the school year at home.