"Our students have been through a lot.
As a lifelong education advocate, I refuse to simply stand by.
I secured nearly $1 million in funding to hire more social workers in the Clark County School District and prioritize our students’ mental health." Lee posted.
When Nevada officials first ordered temporary statewide school closures more than two years ago to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus, students expected to get back to their classes in two weeks.
But when April rolled around, brick-and-mortar schools remained empty. Instead, students continued learning — or attempting to learn — from home, away from the friends, teachers and activities that up until that point had defined their school experience.
Ivy Batmale, now a junior at Incline High School in Northern Nevada, said this time of year has sparked some painful memories for her classmates.
“They were like, ‘I don't want school shut down again,’” she said. “They're like, ‘Last time I was fully in school, I said goodbye on that Friday, and then I never went back.’”
Friday, March 13, 2020 was the last day many Nevada students would see their friends and teachers for several months. What started as a two-week closure eventually morphed into a permanent shift to distance learning for the remainder of the academic year.
Ivy, then a freshman, remembers seeing the fear and confusion course through students and staff at her school leading up to that Friday.
“My teachers were starting to panic,” she said. “They were starting to see stuff around the news and the talk of digital learning really came into play.”
Prior to the pandemic, the district used Microsoft Teams to track assignments, but Ivy said teachers “weren’t big on using it and neither were students.”
But little did Nevada students, teachers and families know how much they all would come to rely on technology for the next year regardless of whether they had the equipment and technical know-how to navigate lessons through applications such as Zoom, Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams, or whether the online classes were even suitable for all students’ learning styles.
Despite educators’ attempts to recreate the schooling experience in a virtual setting, some students discovered that some of the best and most engaging parts of school aren’t the same from a computer screen.
In interviews, Nevada students and parents say they're still dealing with the fallout from school closures and COVID-related class disruptions, which even two years later continue to affect their education, as well as their physical and emotional health.
‘No one cared'
After schools closed, Nevada districts turned to distance education to keep learning in motion — at least to the extent possible. But the abrupt shift came with some hiccups, most notably the Herculean task of outfitting every student with the technology necessary to connect.
The Washoe County School District also adopted a policy to not penalize students for any late or missing work during this time period. Any completed assignments would only boost their grade.
Tegan Richardson, then a sixth-grader at Mendive Middle School in Sparks, felt that policy erased motivation, causing some of her peers to lose interest in their online schoolwork and, in some cases, disappear from their online classes altogether.
“It was very saddening, honestly, that no one cared about the schooling at all,” she said.
For Chris Crump, then a sophomore at North Valleys High School in Reno, a lack of reliable internet connection was one of his biggest headaches during the early days of distance learning. Though the school had non-online options — such as distributing paper packets — Crump said the system didn’t work well, especially for those concerned about in-person contact during the pandemic.
“I couldn't really keep up with a lot of stuff that was going on online,” the now 17-year-old high school senior said.
Chris and his family were hesitant to go out at the beginning of the pandemic. He was eventually able to get a better Wi-Fi connection after a district staff member helped him procure a mobile hotspot.
Lack of access to adequate technology was also a challenge for the Carrillo family in Las Vegas. At the beginning of the pandemic, the family owned a single desktop computer without a built-in camera and microphone for sisters Debbie Carrillo, now 17, and Daniella Carrillo, now 13, to use. The family couldn’t afford to buy another computer. “
For me it was like, ‘Wow, what are we going to do?” their mother, Marilú Carrillo, said in an interview conducted in Spanish.
She eventually found a Facebook group for Spanish-speaking Clark County School District parents, which helped her connect with community members who donated two laptops to the family.
Despite the challenges, distance learning proved enjoyable for some students, including Ivy from Incline High School. Her freshman year was her first time back at a public school after attending a local private school for several years. Prior to COVID, Ivy said she felt like an outsider.
“I was anxious in general about going to school and having to see people and having to try and put myself out there socially,” Ivy said. “So when the pandemic hit, that was kind of like a godsend for me.”
Ivy found herself feeling happier and exploring new interests during her unexpected free time.
“I got really into baking,” she said.
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