Bainbridge High School senior Leah Rhee created and conducted a survey on Instagram in an effort to better understand how her peers felt about returning to in-school learning.

“I created the survey because I was simply curious about how everyone else at BHS felt about returning to school, but once I saw the results I realized I wasn’t the only student that did not want to return,” she said, adding she hopes to major in psychology in college.

Rhee said she’s actually doing better with online school. “It took me a few months to get into the rhythm of online school but now that I’ve gotten used to it I’ve been doing really well. My grades have never been better, and it’s much easier for me to focus without the distractions of a normal classroom,” she said.

She knows everyone is not like her, but she thinks students staying at home is safer. “I believe that we’ve done well as a community in terms of keeping our COVID-19 numbers down, and I’d hate to see that spike again if we were to return to school,” she said.

In her survey, asked if they wanted to return to school, 68 said yes, and 101 said no. Not all gave reasons why.

Here are some of the responses she did get:

Don’t want to go back

• I feel like it’s going to be unsafe for us and for teachers. Kids won’t stop partying, and it puts us all at risk. We’ve also been doing it for so long that disrupting our rhythm would do more harm than good.

• I think that the very bare minimum should be vaccinating every single teacher and staff.

• It’s gonna be so chilly and also the work load is gonna hella increase when we go back.

• At this point, no. I am tired of constantly getting my hopes up. Plus it’s clear it won’t work. It’s clear because Woodward had a case within three days of school starting.

• I changed my answer. I feel like it’s now safer to be online.

• I want to go back but we shouldn’t, at least not until teachers get vaccinated

• It’s unsafe and logistically far more difficult to control movement in middle school and high school. The numbers are worse than they were when we decided to not go back in the fall.

• I am doing all online so I won’t be returning, but it just seems too risky.

• Eventually, but returning when it’s planned is too early. We need all teachers vaccinated.

• Because other people’s health goes first. I don’t want to give anyone COVID.

• It’s definitely not safe. It’s literally already been proven at Woodward.

• Woodward wasn’t even open for a week and saw cases…It’s going to be the same for BHS

• Not enough precautions/too much of COVID risk

• I want to return, but I think they should wait for warm weather, more people vaccinated, etc

• I don’t want to go back to school because we are worried about my grandma

• It’s impractical and unsafe. Also going to a 10-person class doesn’t sound fun.

• It seems irresponsible to return when things are worse than they were when school closed

• I know I would learn better in person but I don’t feel safe going back

• Over the past few months my opinion has changed. At the beginning of the year, I couldn’t wait. Their reasoning before was for cases to drop. Now with even more than September, they want to send kids back …Now, I really don’t trust BISD with anything when it comes to health and safety, especially the failed checkpoints at WMS, when they boasted their clean and safe measurements that have failed within weeks.

• It feels really rushed and not safe but I hate online so much. I’m also scared to go in case of COVID.

Want to go back

• I would be so sad if we didn’t go back

• Please reopen for the kids who don’t wanna just stay online.

• I’m not learning anything online and would like to be prepared for college

• I think it’s time to go back. Trying to learn online is unsustainable. Also most of the country has gone back to school, and we keep falling behind. If you signed up for hybrid you should have understood the risk with it.

• Because I am going to fail if I don’t. I’m so unmotivated with online school. Hurts mental health.

• My mental health has declined so much as well as my grades. I want to be safe but…

• I am not learning anything.

• I can’t do anything without my notes, but I’m not worried about COVID.

Neutral

• Because online school is impossible for me but I don’t want to go back unless it’s safe

• I do want to because the school setup is really bad, but I also don’t want to get sick.

• I want to go back because of mental health, but I don’t know if it’s a good idea.