By Marisa Hirschfield

On April 14th, 2021, a group of Upper West Side mothers filed a lawsuit against Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York City School Chancellor Meisha Porter, claiming that COVID-induced school closures “put at risk the futures of an entire generation of New York City children.” Indeed, their claims reflect what some UWS high schoolers–public and private–told WSR in recent interviews: pandemic-era school has been emotionally and academically damaging.

“Everything fun about school has been taken away,” contends Willa Hart, 16, a sophomore at the private Calhoun School, on West End Avenue between 80th and 81st. Calhoun has taken on a “hybrid” format. Willa learns in person for half the week, and remains at home for the rest. This has hardly stunted her screen time, though. When in person, she logs onto Zoom for 90% of her classes, in order to communicate with students at home.

When taking classes from home, students spend most of their waking hours on screens. An average school day runs from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. These hours, compounded by those spent scrolling on social media and watching television, amount to at least seven hours of screen time per day. Often, it is much more. “I have Zoom meetings, as well as extracurriculars and homework, so I would say [my screen time is] around 10 hours,” Eloise Gordon, 14, a freshman at West End Secondary School, a public school on West 61st Street between Amsterdam and West End Avenues, told the Rag.

It is a challenge to stay engaged when so much of life has been pushed to the virtual platform. Seeing friends, sharing a meal, and riffing off each other’s ideas in class discussions used to draw students to school. Such activities do not translate well online. Class discussions are afflicted with mute-mishaps, awkward silences, and an overall dearth of fluidity. Simple pleasures like high-fiving friends in the hallways and gossiping before class are no more, as students only see each other in academic settings, under teacher supervision.

For some, the allure of school has dissipated. Eloise admitted, “I truly have no motivation to go to any more Zoom meetings.”

“I dread waking up in the morning to join my classes,” one high schooler, 15, under the pseudonym “Unhappy LaGuardia Student,” told the Rag. She attends LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, a public magnet school on Amsterdam between West 64th and 65th.

The pandemic is complicating the college application process for some too. Students working from home say they are struggling to prepare for standardized tests.

Studying for her Advanced Placement Human Geography Exam, Eloise says she teaches herself most of the material. “It is difficult to process over Zoom,” she says. Top universities like to see high scores on these exams, and students who have to prepare on their own are likely at a disadvantage come application time. The pandemic will add challenges to a college process already riddled with challenges.

All this – outrageous screen times, academic withdrawal, and the stress of self-education – can take a harrowing toll on students’ mental health. Not only can it exacerbate teenagers’ pre-existing mental conditions, it can create new ones.

“I [had] no history of mental illness,” a 16-year-old sophomore at Columbia Prep (5 West 93rd Street) told the Rag. “Now I have anxiety and [battle] with depression. I have never felt like this before.”

Some students hold a different view on learning during the pandemic. With fewer tests and reduced-capacity classes, they feel they are getting a more intimate, less taxing education. They are also getting more sleep. Not having to commute means students can wake up later. Though she prefers learning in-person, Calhoun student Hanna Bauman says she “wouldn’t mind revisiting online school.” Eloise, at least, would like the option each day.

Others are less conflicted: “It’s a total mess,” Unhappy LaGuardia Student says of pandemic schooling. “Never in my life will I ever wish to join a Zoom [again].”

“Never never again,” the Columbia Prep sophomore agrees.

Perhaps with the hasty vaccine rollout in New York, inoculated high schoolers will return to learning in-person, in full, soon. Perhaps, then, Unhappy LaGuardia Student will be unhappy no more.

Marisa Hirschfield is a sophomore at Ethical Culture Fieldston School.