Going back to school is one of the most dreaded times of the year by many students. Adapting to a school routine after the summer with no structure can be hard, as well as getting back into school work and activities after a carefree summer.  

Getting back into the swing of things isn’t always easy after a summer of staying up late, sleeping in, hanging out with friends, and playing video games. Did you know that it takes 66 days or roughly two months to form a habit that becomes naturally automatic, according to James Clear, author of “Atomic Habits”? Then to going back to having a sleep schedule, having to do homework, and having activities after school. It can be a shocker for some, even though we have done it since kindergarten.

 Keeping students safe in the classroom is a priority during this time. Whilst going to school with having to wear a mask is not the most desired, it is the safest and most efficient way for keeping students safe. 

“I am not a fan of having to wear the masks,” Mackenzie Mohrbacher, eighth grader, said, “but I do see why we are having to wear them, due to this problem that we are needing to fix.” 

The students went to school for the first week being able to be mask free, only having to wear masks if they desired. Then by the second week of school, Governor Tom Wolf and Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam came out with the new mandate that masks were mandatory when in school buildings. This is due to all of the COVID-19 cases that have been in the schools recently. The school case numbers have gone up significantly since the beginning of school.

Our middle school cases are currently the highest out of three buildings, with a total of ten cases in the middle school. This may not seem like much, but for our school and how small it is, it is quite a bit. Throughout all of the school district there are 16 cases total as of Friday, Sept. 24. 

Some schools in Beaver County have had to go totally virtual due to the spike in cases over the last month we have been in school. Beaver Area school district has been one of them to close, they closed on Monday Sept. 13-17.