Welcome to the first entry in our Community Pulse series, where we check the pulse of our community and share the results with you, the readers.

This year’s presidential election has generated a lot of thoughts, conversations, and even arguments. We “took to the streets” to see what our school community had to say about the entire process. Another topic gaining strength has been the ever evolving nature of hybrid learning. Let us know if you have a question you’d like us to address in future issues!

On This Year’s Presidential Election:

“It is funny how into the election I am. This is one of the first years I am actually interested in seeing who wins. I feel like whoever wins will turn to a disaster, but we’ll hope for the best :)” -Mia (11th grade)

“Mississippi turned yellow for a second, Texas was switching colors like it was a rave and I stayed up till 12 am. All in all, a fascinating experience to watch and torturous eye sore as nothing has happened for a whole day” -Gabrielle McGinnis, 12th Grade

¨The election isn’t our problem, we’re only 14¨ – Jaadler Jameau, 9th grade

¨The election is, uh, a unique experience this year. I kinda want everyone to have equal rights and for the rich people who are barely paying any taxes to pay taxes y´know. In my opinion, a vote for Biden is a vote for change. I kinda wanna keep my rights, but with Trump in office, you never know if your rights are gonna get taken away. There’s also many problems with Trump like him with Covid. He didn’t really treat it seriously and many people died. Lots of Trump supporters are also anti-mask and he hasn’t addressed that y´know. Mail(in) ballots can also potentially be problematic, but they are necessary. We would be losing countless votes with people who aren’t comfortable with going into a polling place because of Covid. Every vote counts, no matter what candidate.¨ – Jeanette Tisk

“I coped with the uncertainty of election results by eating all the leftover Halloween Candy.” -Anonymous Teacher

On Hybrid Learning:

“My favorite part of hybrid learning is when pets make cameo appearances in Google Meet.” -Anonymous

“Optimum is the worst internet provider” -Anonymous 12th grader who keeps losing connection

¨Hybrid learning is weird…¨ -Jaadler Jameau, 9th grade

“… I understand why there is hybrid learning, but I feel it is unnecessary at this time. What if students aren’t wearing masks or not abiding to the rules put in place for Covid? Schools in my opinion could’ve just stayed online, but I do understand why people want hybrid learning.” -Anonymous

¨Honestly, learning fully online would be far superior to me because I actually get to learn and am not on the edge of disconnecting every 5 seconds because of my bad internet service provider, but it is the safest option for now, so I get why it’s being heavily enforced across America.¨ -Amin Shah, 9th grade

I don’t mind hybrid learning. Having a switch in routine is refreshing. Personally, I am a better learner when I am on campus, in front of the board. I am wishing for the day that everything will go back to normal. Or at least the new “normal.”  -Mia 11th grade