Although COVID-19 occurred five years ago, students and teachers are still seeing the impact this pandemic has on high schoolers today. Students are finding themselves lacking in basic knowledge, dealing with decreased attention spans, and even using COVID-19 as an excuse for being behind.

Students are still feeling the impacts of COVID, but not all in negative ways. Due to lockdown, students are now feeling more equipped to use technology and have better resources to learn how to use it. Before COVID, students struggled with using technology and not knowing what to do when it crashed or had issues. Now, with multiple years of forced experience constantly on screens, teenagers are better than ever at technology usage and are better equipped to handle those situations if they were to happen. “It’s given me better technology skills and learning how to use technology,” sophomore Lucy Johnson said.

Socially, the virus has reduced students’ ability to sit still and enjoy being alone. While COVID was at its peak, students were locked up in their houses, unable to be around their friends. Students are now feeling as though they have to get out and stay busy to make up for the years they spent inside without social interaction. For extroverted students, this was a hard time for them and they are now feeling especially inclined to go out with their friends. “Sometimes I feel I have to do something because, in COVID, you couldn’t do anything…I can’t just sit still,” freshman Claire Hamel said.

COVID has given students an excuse for not reaching their full potential. It’s undeniable that COVID-19 caused setbacks in everyone’s lives; however, years later, students are still blaming COVID for not being where they should be, whether that’s in their academics or social life. Adults are also telling students that it is COVID setting them behind, which leads to students not trying as hard in school and looking forward to their future. “[COVID] can become a dangerous excuse. If we tell students, “It’s not your fault,” the expectations aren’t as high because of COVID. Our students are too smart, too talented, to be right off the hook for that reason,” history teacher Jeff Cohen said.

One of the biggest areas students are still struggling in is mathematics. Students lack the basics of math, which are crucial to understand as they continue to excel and advance at the class level. Because students were online for these years, they couldn’t get the personalized help they needed when they didn’t understand what they were learning. Because of this, many relied on online resources like Photomath, not fully grasping the concepts but instead just sliding by. Students would either move on without understanding the subject or have to teach themselves, which could also lead to false understanding. “I think students are struggling with some basic areas that could be related to online learning … how to round decimals properly, how to work with fractions…things that you would associate with learning they would have had five or six years ago,” math teacher John Groess said.