One year ago, on March 13, students said goodbye to their friends and teachers, exited the school building and went home. Now, students have come back to the school building for the first time almost exactly one year later. Freshmen returned first, in order to have time to adjust to a new building, the week of March 9. Sophomores and upperclassmen will join them the week of the 16th. But as the school takes its first steps towards normality, the Crossed Sabres is here to bring to light anything that may have been forgotten over the past year.
As reports of COVID-19 first began to hit mainstream media, students and teachers watched on as schools began to close in the western United States. Despite this, there were not many who honestly thought it would last. Spring sports began as usual and preparations were underway for the spring musical, “Kiss Me Kate,” as well as the Spring Fling. In the Pub Lab, staff reporters were busy covering all of these events, unaware that the stories would be irrelevant by the time they were published.
“I think we were in a position to have a really great season,” senior Bridget Holt, a co-captain of the girls crew team, said. “I felt like I was in my prime time to start training for recruiting for college coaches and for our team to maybe win states. So [COVID-19] hit at the worst possible moment, I think, for our team as a whole and for me.”
On Friday, March 13, Arlington Public Schools (APS) announced that they would be closed for a month, beginning Monday the 16th. Until then, students were to continue learning from home asynchronously (not that anyone knew what that word meant at the time) with some direction from their teachers in the form of email and Canvas announcements. Grades were put on pause until students returned, which was sure to be very soon.
“I initially remember that first day, when the announcements went off that everyone had no school, everyone was so excited,” freshman Abby Welker said. “They were screaming and running up and down.”
However, that mindset dwindled with Governor Ralph Northam’s executive order number 53, which began March 24. All schools were to be closed for the remainder of the academic year, non-essential businesses were to close, and gatherings of more than 10 people were banned.
“I didn’t realize at all how big of a deal it was going to be,” Holt said. “I thought: ‘Oh my god we’re going to have a two week break where we can all hang out with our friends all of the time. It’ll be awesome, it’ll be so fun, nobody’s going to care.’ And then, like a week in, my parents said, ‘You shouldn’t go in other people’s houses, we have to wear masks everywhere we go.’ And then I obviously started to realize that it was a pretty big deal and I started to take things more seriously.”
Spring break passed in quarantine, and APS decided that their current method of distance learning was not sustainable. Now that virtual school was appearing to be more permanent, a more concrete plan was necessary.
“Except for AP, IB, DE or CTE courses that have competency requirements, no new content will be taught or graded for the remainder of the school year,” the Arlington Public Schools Continuous Learning Plan for Secondary: Grades 6-12, said.
Students were given a weekly assignment or list of assignments at the beginning of each week. These were to be worked on throughout the week and submitted online. Those who completed all of the work by the end of the year would receive a grade boost of one letter grade, however there was no punishment for those who did not complete the work.
“It was just so easy to not do anything, because I generally had decent grades in those classes,” Holt said. “It felt very optional.”
For those taking AP and IB classes, instruction was allowed to continue asynchronously.
“With IB math they were like: ‘there’s no way you can just not do any work,’” junior Lily Odenwelder said. “That was sort of annoying, having to interrupt my long days of relaxation to have to do this math assignment…[For AP government] it was over pretty soon, cause AP exams are in early May.”
Quarantine stretched on. Due to the lack of new material, students' focus turned mainly to other things. Students developed new hobbies, including skateboarding and baking, and old hobbies flourished. Puppies became very popular as well.
“I’ve always been a crazy reader and TV watcher,” Odenwelder said. “It was nice because it was actually nice weather, so I could just be outside all day while I read or watched TV on my phone.”
Some students decided to put their talents, and boredom, to good use by creating their own small businesses. Many of these businesses operated through social media and some donated their profits.
“I wanted to start an earring business because I picked it up as a hobby, just for fun.” freshman Rowan Watson, who runs Earrings by RMW, said to the Crossed Sabres in October. “I heard about what was happening in Lebanon and then I just thought, ‘Okay, I’m going to put some of my funds towards this because it’s relevant.’”
Despite boredom, many students felt an appreciation for the time on their hands, although they did not expect it to last.
“It’s nice to just be able to do things that I just never had time for [before now],” Holt said.
COVID-19 numbers started to drop as summer began. However, it was during this month that America began to open its eyes to the harsh realities of police brutality and systemic racism. WIth the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many others coming into focus, students took to the streets and social media.
Within Arlington Public Schools (APS) there was, and continues to be, a push for change as well. Juniors Rosie Couture and Belan Yeshigeta are one example. They created a petition which, among other changes to the disciplinary system, demanded APS end the School Resource Officer program, stating that the program encouraged the “school-to-prison” pipeline which disproportionately affects Black students.
“Although [we in APS] pride ourselves in our diversity and inclusivity and are often commended for it, we still have a ways to go before we can claim that our schools are truly equitable,” Couture said to the Crossed Sabres in November.
In the DC area, protests took place daily. While mostly peaceful, many of the larger ones attracted tear gas, and rubber bullets all across the country.
“[I went to] this really small one,” Odenwelder said. “I was following some local Instagrams for different [protests]. It was just the Fairfax County or Alexandria BLM Instagram and I just went to one of their marches.”
For those not at the protests, social media played a large role in this movement. Students shared petitions, information, and stood in solidarity with the movement through their Instagram posts and stories.
“I [decided] I wanted to be out there protesting with all those other people, but also [with] the yelling and some people not wearing masks, I couldn’t just do that,” Odenwelder said in reference to most other protests. “So then I said, ‘I’m just going to do some petitioning and all that online.’”
Despite restrictions, warm weather and then-declining COVID-19 numbers allowed many summer activities to happen. Students participated in sports teams and some travelled.
“I got soccer practices [back],” Welker said. “I had to start going to the actual fields [and] training with my team. But it was like a grid. We couldn’t move [out of] our nine by nine grid and we had to do the drills within that grid.”
Despite not receiving a formal graduation, many students of the Class of 2020 still proudly displayed their yard signs, which had been delivered the month before. Current freshmen finished middle school with unique ceremonies and prepared to come to Washington-Liberty.
“[Swanson Middle School] set up a tent outside and we were supposed to drive past and they would give us the actual certificate and stuff in the car,” Welker said. “It was nothing. It was getting textbooks from school. That was basically it.”
Despite summer continuing, focus within APS turned to the fall. What would school look like? Facebook groups full of parents battled it out. Initially, some students were set to return at the beginning of the year twice a week in a hybrid model. However, this did not last.
“Our primary focus now is to prepare a successful full-time distance learning start back to school for all students,” Superintendent Dr. Francisco Durán stated in his Aug. 4 return to school update. “We will continue to evaluate future opportunities to gradually phase in hybrid in-person instruction for some students, based on student need, family selections, health metrics and other factors I have previously noted.”
This led to new questions. Because APS had done no synchronous learning the spring before, this was going to be totally new. However, the good news was two extra weeks of summer vacation. School had been set to begin, for the first time ever, on Aug. 24. However, due to the extra planning time needed for distance learning, the start was postponed to after labor day, on Sept. 8.
“I remember being so confident,” Holt said. “I thought, okay, who even cares? We’re going to be in virtual school for a month and then we’re going to go back, and it’ll be fine.”
On top of this, APS was preparing for the year with a new superintendent, Dr. Durán, and the school was preparing with a new principal, Mr. Antonio Hall. Dr. Durán was appointed on May 7 after having been the Chief Academic and Equity Officer for Fairfax County Public Schools since 2015.
“[Dr. Durán] has a diverse background in education spanning 26 years, including top-level leadership and superintendent experience in a variety of large urban school divisions with culturally diverse populations,” an APS announcement said.
Mr. Hall was appointed as principal of Washington-Liberty on June 25. Previously, he had been a teacher at Gunston Middle School, as well as assistant principal of Washington-Liberty and Swanson Middle School. Despite many years of experience, preparing for this school year was different than any other.
“Right now, I can’t think of anywhere else that I’d rather be than in a school working with teachers and students,” Mr. Hall said to the Crossed Sabres in September.
Finally, after what felt like many months of back and forth and planning, the first virtual, synchronous learning sessions began. There were certainly a few noticeable kinks as the year began, including a Global Protect crash on the first day.
“I can’t make any new friends,” Welker said. “Whenever we have breakout rooms or something, I try and talk to everyone, but no one wants to talk back, so in the end I’m just talking to myself.”
However, virtual school continued and students and teachers started to adjust. Many students enjoyed later wake up times despite missing out on typical high school activities.
“It’s less missing the impending prom and graduation, it’s more all the little things we missed,” Holt said. “We missed all the football games, and getting to do senior nights for sports and being able to leave [the school’s campus] for lunch.”
As students settled into a routine with virtual school, the focus turned towards social interaction. Because the Virginia High School League (VHSL) had postponed the start of their seasons until December, clubs, which had turned completely virtual as well, became very popular.
“I feel like this year it’s better.” Odenwelder, who co-founded the PAWS club, which works to educate and do fundraisers for animals, said. “All these other years you’re competing with all these people having to do activities. You have to make it seem like my club is better than this other club, or it’s worth your time missing this sport for... especially in the fall when we were first recruiting, there were no sports so a lot of people would just join. I’ve definitely noticed that attendance has gone down as the sports have started starting up.”
Similar to online school, clubs have faced some challenges with active participation and the APS camera policy.
“I know a lot of people are doing two club meetings at once or doing homework while doing this, and I feel like if we were in school people would be held more accountable because they’d have to be sitting there right in front of me,” Odenwelder said. “But I try to not let it get to me.”
Despite rising COVID-19 numbers, the pandemic seemed to once again take a backburner as the presidential election approached. The majority of students at the school are too young to vote, however that did not stop them from getting involved.
“I was volunteering at a poll,” Holt said. “I explained to [voters] really quickly the new COVID guidelines we had to follow. I would lead people in, show them where they could check-in, vote, and then we could insert their vote into a machine.”
Due to COVID-19, there was a larger push than ever for mail-in ballots and early voting. This may have been part of what led to a larger nation-wide voter turnout than ever before as well as many voters who were simply pleased to have Former President Donald Trump out of office.
“No matter who you voted for in the 2016 election, it is so obvious that Trump did not handle Corona well.” Odenwelder said. “It’s just a huge weight off my chest, just being like ‘wow, we’re actually gonna start getting this fixed.’”
The downside of early voting, however, was that election results took days to be counted (Election day was Nov. 3, however a winner was not projected until the seventh) which led to some nerves and binge-watching the news for many students.
“It just seems like we’ve had crisis over crisis for the past year and it was so important to me personally that we saw a change, and a change in administration,” Holt said. “It just felt so stressful because I could not do another four years of that.”
Despite distance-learning continuing, the winter sports season was fast-approaching. Winter sports were first this year, and would be followed by Fall and then Spring sports.
“It’s basically like 60 percent of a season,” Ms. Carol Callaway, the director of student activities, said to the Crossed Sabres in November. “60 percent of the games, and [60 percent of] the time frame. So each season has been cut down to fit.”
Of course, it wouldn’t be 2020 without controversy. In the beginning of November, Dr. Durán had announced that APS would not partake in the winter sport season. This received quite a bit of backlash on social media, mostly from parents. After a petition circulated which aimed to reinstate the season, Dr. Durán reversed his decision.
“There are so many benefits to athletics beyond exercise, improved academics, and teamwork, and mental health,” Tiffany McAvoy, who started the petition, said to the Crossed Sabres in November. “Sports are being played all over the country safely, they’re being played in Arlington safely...so clearly it can be done.”
So, the sports seasons began on December 14 with modifications. As with most things these days, masks were required during the duration of the sport. Also, no spectators were permitted in Arlington which created a different environment than athletes were used to.
“It was a pretty interesting experience,” Holt, a member of the swim team, said. “We were back in the school doing swim meets and practices, trying to figure out what we could do, where we could gather, how many people we could have doing things. So that was kind of like a test run.”
Students returned from winter break and as the new year began, there was overall an energy that 2021 would be different. Many students were looking forward to the Inauguration on Jan. 20.
“I like a lot of the joy and the victory [of the Inauguration],” freshmen Elizabeth Schaaf said to the Crossed Sabres in early February.
Before that could happen, however, Congress was set to certify the electoral votes on Jan. 6. It was during this that an armed and angry mob came down Pennsylvania Avenue on their way from a speech by former President Donald Trump. They successfully broke into the United States Capitol with the goal of interrupting the vote count and stopping the certification of the election. For a while, they succeeded. Congresspeople left the chambers and hid for a few hours until the rioters left. Many students and staff watched on from home and a 6:00 pm curfew was put in place in Arlington. Despite these pro-Trump efforts, however, President Joe Biden was inaugurated on Jan. 20. Due to the attack, then two weeks prior, and the largest COVID-19 surge yet, spectators were limited to a bare minimum. Despite not being able to go, many watched from home and enjoyed the day off of school.
“I had been following the election and [I watched because] I just wanted to see this very historical moment that felt so important,” sophomore Jillian McLeod, co-president of the Young Democrats club, said to the Crossed Sabres in January.
As the Biden administration started rolling, the groundhog saw his shadow, Arlington got more snow than it has in years, and APS announced their hybrid plan after months of debate and failed attempts to get a plan off the ground.
“I’m really hoping it’ll be a little normal,” Holt said. “I’m nervous that we’re gonna go back and all the parts I was excited for, seeing people and socializing, are gonna be gone or very restricted.”
While it seems that the world is a long way away from being back where it was a year ago, the hybrid model seems to some like the first step in getting there.
“I’m a little hesitant to see how it all works out,” Holt said. “But I’m excited and really hopeful.”