“I Miss the Sound of Our Bells:” Massachusetts High School Students Reflect on Life During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Held on February 17, 2022.
Watch a full recording of the event, or scroll down to read a recap and watch event highlights.

Recap by Diya Ashtakala

On Thursday, February 17, 2022, the Boston University Initiative on Cities (IOC) and the CERES Institute for Children & Youth at BU Wheelock College hosted a webinar to highlight findings from recent research on the impact that the pandemic has had on high school students and bring together the perspectives of schools districts, researchers, and young people themselves.

Moderated by Dr. Jonathan Zaff, Research Professor and Director of the CERES Institute for Children & Youth at BU Wheelock College, the event featured Dr. Yasuko Kanno, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Language and Literacy at BU Wheelock College; Bethany M. Allen, Director of Equitable Pathways at Boston Public Schools; Dr. Mary Jo Rendón, Coordinator, Waltham Opportunity Institute at Waltham High School; and Eliana, a student from Greater Egleston High School, Boston, MA.

Dr. Kanno began by presenting data from her and Dr. Zaff’s recent report detailing research funded through an IOC Early-Stage Urban Research Award. The panelists then discussed the findings, addressed the various challenges that students have faced during the pandemic, and proposed solutions that could make a meaningful difference.

Students voicing their experiences  

“The rationale for this study was quite simple in that we really didn’t find any studies that captured the voices of young people themselves, the high school students,” said Dr. Kanno as she presented the report. The researchers carried out large scale studies to provide a broad view into the impact that the pandemic has had on students, from difficulties with remote learning, COVID-19 infection in families, and mental health issues.

“About one-third of the students we interviewed, 21 students reported struggling with mental health,” explained Dr. Kanno. “Whether that’s anxiety, trauma responses. These are a student’s own words by the way, ‘fatigue, depression, a sense of being overwhelmed.’” She was also impressed by the way students reflected on their experience experiences.

Similarly, Rendón was impressed by the maturity shown by students while talking about remote learning. Students questioned if they were learning while they were remote. The report explained how students had different experiences with remote learning. While some felt it didn’t work for them and struggled, others felt it was beneficial, particularly those who had longer commute times when they were attending school in-person. “I think that level of critique also reflects a level of maturity in all of our students. I’m very impressed with it, and I think it comes out in this report as well which helps us as educators to also look deeply into our practices as well,” said Rendón.

Allen appreciated the depth that student portrayed, along with the deep affection they had for their families and friends. According to Allen, there needs to be more conversation around the barriers that take students away from school engagement with additional responsibility at home, especially in intergenerational households. “There were many places where this report just helped me think about how we can flip the script a little bit and disrupt some common narratives that we have about young people and their families and communities.”

Building trust

Eliana spoke about switching schools in order to access the support she needed. Students would reach out to teachers with questions and concerns, but they were often met with silence. She said that the lack of a support system impacted everyone’s academic performance.

Allen said that the lack of follow through by adults is a problem. “One of the things where we get challenged is we often create these forums, not often enough, but we create these forums where we solicit feedback from young people or input from young people and then there’s a lack of change or lack of follow through. This is something that is, you know, really crushing to trust building among young people.”

Dr. Kanno highlighted a section of the report that focused on racism and discrimination. Students wanted something to be done, but they did not receive a satisfactory response from adults.  “This notion of, you-know, go and take action and speak up only to see your school not responding in any adequate way. That was a striking finding.” Rendón added that the system in place is not designed to deal with the complexities in young people’s lives, and we need to think about how to address these issues. Ultimately in many cases, students could not attend classes due to the various challenges they were facing and were not heard.

Improving support systems

Rendón spoke about the report highlighting the need for coordinated support systems and programs. “It’s also reflected in the report, this need for coordinated support systems or coordinated programs and how these adults come to provide those support for our students so that they become that trusted adult so that those relationships of trust are actually developing.”

Allen stated that we often dismiss the humanity of students, and the report shows that they are facing real challenges. When students engage in youth advocacy, Allen believes that as adults, we need to ensure that they are heard. She explained that change is implemented by listening to students’ problems rather than silencing them.

Eliana said that teachers, old or new, need to communicate their experiences to students and ask why them why they aren’t coming to school, rather than just assuming. Dr. Kanno agreed, noting that we shouldn’t assume that students are not motivated and that it is necessary to interact with them. Rendón proposed that meeting with students and understanding what they go through will help to them deal with new realities. She also recommended that by looking at engagement and disengagement in school, administrators and officials can address and improve the attendance.

Mental health support to students

Discussing the importance of social workers and counselors in schools, Eliana explained that “if you need support and like need them to go to an appointment with you, or if you have court or whatever it may be, you need somebody to be there with you, they’ll go.” She also believes that teachers and peers are also great support systems when dealing with mental health issues.

In addition, Rendón spoke about schools building community circles and training staff within them. She highlighted cultural brokers, who help with cultural differences and linguistic access into different programming.

Allen spoke about the work that is currently being done in the school district. There has been substantial investment in social workers and an increase in guidance counselors.  Additionally, there are mentorship programs that are looking into different models that would work districtwide. She mentioned that there are plans to implement a peer mentorship program district-wide. “It’s never too late for us to really start focusing on this relationship building, focusing on really centering young people, focusing on elevating the humanity of our young people in all of the work that we do,” said Allen.