As coronavirus cases increased over the summer, many school districts decided to continue the fall semester online despite parents’ hopes of shipping their kids back to school.
Since then, social media posts from angry parents have emerged as many are finally getting an inside look at the audacity of the rules their children are being subjected to, which some teachers are implementing as if their students are still in the classroom rather than their own homes.
I completely understand the desire to maintain a classroom atmosphere during online instruction. While there needs to be a foundation of rules to prevent students from misbehaving, teachers need to be more rational when it comes to their other expectations.
This pandemic is forcing elementary school kids to sit still in front of a computer screen for hours. Teachers should be more lenient; students are still trying to adjust. I’m still trying to adjust as a college student, so I know this transition has to be a lot more complicated for younger students.
Yet some primary schools require students to be in full uniform during their remote classes, meaning parents are having to buy new uniforms for their children just so they can sit in for virtual lessons at the dining room table. It makes no sense for schools to ask parents to spend unnecessary money on uniforms during the financial chaos of this pandemic.
Many teachers also forbid students from eating snacks or drinking during their virtual classes. How are you going to tell a student not to eat in his own home? These teachers need to be reminded: the dictatorial control you had on campus is irrelevant on Google Meet.
Some schools are even considering virtual suspension and virtual expulsion as a form of discipline. In places like Shelby County, TN, schools are requiring students to participate in virtual classes with a clear background.
Isaiah Elliott, a seventh-grader, is a victim of these absurd regulations. School officials were notified of Elliott and another student playing with a toy gun during online class and notified police. Elliott, who suffers from ADHD, was suspended; because of this incident, he now has a record with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.
Students should not have to be subjected to this emotional drain. Moreover, teachers should not feel they need to control students in their own homes. They should focus more on delivering instruction and compassion and less on trivial things that do not concern them.
Teachers need to be conscious of the rules they develop for students in virtual classes. Children across the country are already stuck on a computer when they would much rather be at school with their friends; their teachers should not be working to make it harder on them. Education should be the ultimate priority, whether or not nine-year-old Katie is eating Oreos during class.
Tamia Southall is a 19-year-old mass communication sophomore from New Orleans.
