Letter: Student Concerned With Stable Learning Conditions At D210

This letter was submitted to the editor and written by Lincoln-Way East student Leyla Eames.

Lack of Consideration to Stable Learning Conditions Raises Concerns Over LW210 Board Decisions

My name is Leyla Eames and I am a junior at Lincoln-Way East. As a high achieving honors student with almost a 5.0 GPA, a member of five honors societies, eight school activities and clubs, and employed at three jobs, I speak on behalf of many students when I say returning to full in-person learning is inconsiderate and not in the best interest of our student body.

To begin, many students -myself included- have taken on part-time jobs during our asynchronous learning days. Randomly returning to a fully in-person schedule would create an abundance of stress and inconvenience for us. We would have to quit jobs and burn those bridges... for what?

During consideration, my peers and I feel rather unheard. The issue of if we’re getting enough school work to do on our asynchronous learning days is completely irrelevant and untrue. Every student I’ve talked to feels overwhelmed with the amount of work we’ve been getting, and agrees that our asynchronous days are one of the only things keeping us afloat. Our mental health should be the Board’s top priority. The trauma and challenges that come with COVID-19 have taken and damaged everything we have: the unreliability of scheduling has led to anxiety and depression in our student body. It is not the asynchronous day that “damages our work ethic and mental health,” but it is the in-school days. Going back every day would not make everything “go back to normal” because, for us, school will never be normal again. Randomly finishing the school year fully in-person would, once again, be throwing too much change on students who have dealt with enough.

There are numerous students in our district who are in AP and honors courses who would fall behind if they were to switch to the online option. As an AP student myself, there would be no way I could pass an AP exam from a simple online course. For high-achieving students who wouldn’t feel comfortable or be able to return to full in-person learning, Acellus isn’t an option. This schedule switch would leave us trapped and truly benefits none of us.

Finally, I find myself extremely disappointed and frankly disgusted with the lack of concern for the opinions of the student body. Absolutely no parent nor board member has any idea how hard this year has been for students. How detrimental the constant changes, unreliability, and scheduling has been to our mental health. Instead of listening to us, it feels as though the school board focuses their attention on re-election and pleasing parents. We students are the majority who would be affected by this schedule change, and if we say fully in-person isn’t beneficial, then please listen.

At the recent school board meeting, a school board member made a statement referring to an email I had sent expressing my concern. His comment was along the lines of “you can work three jobs, but you can’t sit in a classroom?” This comment directly proved my point that us students aren’t being listened to. Nowhere in my email did I include any of my personal reasons for working three jobs, nor is it this board member’s place to assume during a pandemic and economic crisis. If he was truly listening and taking into consideration my concerns, he would’ve known that my discontent with returning fully in-person revolves around the pressure and stress that would be put on students. I found this comment to be disrespectful and it was out of place to mention an aspect of my life that he knew nothing about in order to make a point.

Therefore, I believe it would not be in the best interest of our student body to return to full in-person learning.