Even after we moved out of the shelter, there were times I feared we would have to return. It was a scary ordeal because we lived with different people each night. Sometimes those people were not happy and made life difficult. That experience made me appreciate having food and a permanent home. It also made me want to give back and help others.

That鈥檚 why, when I was 9 years old, I created a nonprofit organization to supply many of the things students experiencing homelessness may need. I started the because I saw a lady and her children begging for food outside a grocery store. After learning they were homeless and hungry, I knew I wanted to do something to help because I had been in their shoes before I was adopted. 

Now, my organization fills Ziploc Gallon storage bags with food that can be eaten right out of the bag and toiletry items that they need to have good hygiene. I also include words of encouragement such as the Daily Bread, which is a booklet that gives inspirational readings for each day, or handwritten notes to give recipients hope that better days are coming and can help their mental well-being.

Before school starts, we give out book bags and school supplies so youth experiencing homelessness have what they need to be ready for school.  We also give socks, hats, gloves, coats and scarves to help them prepare for the cold weather. I wish I could help more but I do know that what I do does make a difference and that makes me feel good.

But my work is not enough on its own. It is important for the schools to understand the challenges faced by youth experiencing homelessness or living in temporary housing. They need help to navigate these challenges and support them through these tough times. This is what I think leaders and educators should understand, based on my personal experiences and my volunteer work.

Some of the problems homeless students face are not having shelter so they have issues with feeling insecure and they also experience a problem with absences. Since attendance issues are something they deal with, it leads to other problems. These students usually lack emotional support from parents or guardians because they are so overwhelmed. The parents or guardians sometimes do not know what they are going to eat or where they will sleep. This causes students to feel like they don鈥檛 belong and can negatively impact their mental health. Students experiencing homelessness report feeling depressed at than students who have homes and loving families. 

Being homeless can also lead to behavioral issues, causing problems in school, especially if people know your situation. Sometimes behavioral problems arise because students are ashamed to be around others, especially when they have poor hygiene and don鈥檛 smell so good. Students are often bullied, talked about and shunned because of their poor hygiene. Poor hygiene can also lead to issues like bad breath, body odor and poor health. 

One of my most memorable experiences with my organization was giving out book bags, and toiletries at a hotel that temporarily housed some homeless residents. A little 6-year-old girl ran up and hugged me really tight and kept thanking me because in her bag, she received some deodorant. She was so excited that she would have deodorant to put on and did not have to worry about people talking about how she smelled.

Homeless students may suffer from illnesses and accidents more than their peers. Since they do not always get the right health care, their bodies may not be in good shape and they may have dental issues. These students often face hunger issues. For many students living in poverty, schools are not just a place for learning but also for eating regular meals. Many students dread the summer months because they know they will not have regular meals like when school is going on. This also can contribute to them feeling depressed at higher rates than students who are not homeless.

Their living situations can lead to academic challenges. These homeless students do not have stable situations to learn and study. Sometimes they are moved from school to school. Many times they lack school supplies, which also affect their grades.

School leaders can support these youth by keeping a close check on them to assist them with any needs they have. It is important to make sure they have the materials necessary to complete school assignments. It is also important to make sure that the mental and emotional needs are met as well. If we pay attention to these things, we will help even our homeless youth to have some amount of success.

Coming out of COVID-19 isolation, I looked forward to making up for many missed social opportunities with friends. I joined the track team at my new school and did well in my events. I made good friends with some of my teammates and other students on campus, which can be challenging for me as a person with autism. When my mom was looking for a church for us to attend, my track coach shared information about his church, and we began attending on Sundays; I also went to a Wednesday church youth group when my study schedule allowed it. Thanks to social media, I could keep in contact with friends from my former school, and I even have a girlfriend who attended my old school.

But despite it being a terrific year for me overall, I feel profound disappointment in the circumstances that led me to South Torrance. Several racially charged events occurred during my middle school years, such as the George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery murders and trials. As a result, there were many discussions about race and safety in white communities. In the climate at that time, I expected to be safest with the same people who protested, saying, “Black Lives Matter” and “Stop Killing Our Sons.” I thought the people who said my life matters would believe that my education also matters. Unfortunately, I didn鈥檛 find the community, accountability, collaboration and support that was talked about at those 8th grade recruitment meetings during my first semester in a school attended mostly by students of color and run mostly by educators of color.

I found myself in a situation where some teachers were not motivated to teach and help their students succeed, some were bullied by their own students and didn鈥檛 know how to discipline the class and some repeated the same lessons and shared the answers before they gave tests and quizzes (and some kids still failed!). When my mom, herself an administrator who has been in education for over 20 years, tried to intervene, it was difficult to impossible to get some teachers to respond or administrators or other top education officials to address the problem. Eventually, she started looking for a new home in a different school district and we moved in December.

South High is a predominantly white and Asian ethnic high school where most of the teaching staff is also primarily white and Asian. They treat their students as I expected a school should, providing counselors, tutoring and “Spartan Seminar.” 

Spartan Seminar is a 25-minute session every Wednesday and Thursday, where students sign up for specific classes to catch up on work, get tutoring from the teacher or study for an upcoming test/quiz with that teacher. If you are not doing well in a class or on an assignment, you are expected to attend Spartan Seminar for that class. 

My Spanish teacher has great classroom control. First, he provides us with study guides (not answers!) for upcoming quizzes. He reviews the homework to ensure we are updated on the current unit’s information. Finally, whenever someone does act up, he raises his voice and tells them to stop, which works, and we immediately return to learning.

My algebra teacher at South High was terrific. She showed the class how to work on new equations, like factoring and polynomials. She has a pleasant personality, making learning enjoyable for everyone in her classroom. She didn’t wait for my mom to email or call her; she often emailed my mom if she had information she thought would help me. My friends all agreed that she is a good teacher, which is unusual for a math class, and some even consider her their favorite teacher. 

I finished the semester at South High with 4 As, 2 Bs, and a C. It took much work, and I sometimes spent as many as six hours a night doing homework to learn the subject. I credit my school team and my mom because they challenged me to communicate with them about when I needed help and they created a schedule to review my work and grades to ensure I was on the right track. I was motivated to work harder at South High because I knew it was expected of me. I did not mind staying at my desk for hours and sometimes sacrificing my sleep to get the grades I knew I could if I tried hard. 

Although this was a great school year, I am disappointed that I had to leave a community I loved to find it. I also don’t want to suggest that my old school was not a good school because it was attended and run predominantly by people of color. I was raised by a Black educator, who cared so much about her students that we still go to their weddings, graduations, sporting and social events years after they were in her class.

If I could go back and talk to the staff at my former school, I would want them to know that:

I want to be valued as someone who takes their work seriously.

I want teachers who take their jobs seriously and hold me accountable. 

I want to look up to my teachers, like what I see, and be like them.

I want them to care enough to know who I am because my life matters to them, for them to see my potential and help me reach my goals.

My African-American peers and I want to be educated by teachers who look like us.

We want to hear their stories. We want to hear how they made it to college. If they go, maybe we can go, too. Tell us about African-American fraternities and sororities, dorms and the fun times they had so we know that college isn’t just boring hard work. We want to hear about their mistakes, so we learn from them. 

We want to know about the problems they faced in predominantly white spaces and how they overcame them so that when we have those experiences, we can overcome them, too. 

We want to talk to them about our experiences as African-American students and know that they understand. We sometimes do not want to “air our family business” to people who may not understand or who already stereotype us because we are African American. They don’t understand our community, language, idioms, values or history. They don’t understand us, no matter how well intentioned or woke they are. 

The teachers are the ones who told us they would do all these things for us and it hurts the most to think they are aware of our unmet expectations. I want them to know that, too.

My goal is not to criticize but to remind them that their students need them. We want them to care about us. Some of their students will only care when they do. We are waiting for them.

He was a senior at Colorado State University and worked as chair of All The T.E.A. in Denver, an organization focused on HIV education and advocacy. Would the new outcry over teaching critical race theory 鈥� originally an academic framework used to understand structural racism, now a GOP catch-all for lessons addressing race, sex and gender 鈥� interfere with his team鈥檚 access to schools, he wondered?

鈥淎 lot of [our] historical work has been going into public schools and doing basic sex ed, HIV 101s and talking about how race and LGBT issues intersect with sexual health and with HIV specifically,鈥� said Babcock. 鈥淪o it was a really scary year to think about the ways that we might end up losing that access in certain counties.鈥�

So far, the group has not been blocked from continuing its work in any districts, said Babcock. But in Fort Collins, his college town, some parents on May 24 against gender and sexuality alliances in local schools, underscoring to Babcock the barriers his organization is up against, especially in areas with large swaths of conservative-leaning parents.

It鈥檚 one example out of many students shared of how the hot-button issues facing education this year impacted youth nationwide. With the school year having now drawn to a close, 麻豆精品 convened members of its Student Council to share how the key K-12 storylines played out in their own lives.

Staffing shortages

For Mia Miron in Pomona, California, staffing shortages impacted her learning. Across the U.S. this past school year, there were more open positions at K-12 schools than during any previous year going back at least a decade, according to . At Miron鈥檚 school, her math teacher left early in the year, and from then on, her class was led by a long-term substitute.

鈥淭hat kind of set me behind,鈥� the eighth grader said.

She now is attending summer classes offered by her school to catch up and prepare for the transition to high school.

Diego Camacho, who recently graduated high school in Los Angeles, also attended a school that was short a math teacher. During his junior year, they were forced to combine the pre-algebra and pre-calculus classes, with students mostly learning from online Khan Academy lessons, he said.

Mental health

Numerous students articulated struggles with mental health. Sydnee Floyd, a high schooler in Franklin, Tennessee, said that during the first year of COVID, she experienced bouts of depression as the pandemic shut down many of her favorite activities. 

To make matters worse, in her community, she felt a stigma around discussing issues like depression or anxiety. 

鈥淚t’s kind of like you shove it to the corner and you don’t really talk about it,鈥� she said.

But fortunately, a teacher who, Floyd said, was 鈥渓ike my second mom鈥� picked up on the girl鈥檚 troubled state.

鈥淪he could tell that I was struggling and she just asked me an honest question. 鈥楢re you OK?鈥� And I was like, 鈥楴o, I’m not. I’ve been really struggling,鈥欌�� Floyd recalled. 鈥淪o she got in contact with our school counselors, and got me the help I needed.鈥�

In Needham, Massachusetts, Maxwell Surprenant鈥檚 school tried to take an honest accounting of the mental health difficulties its student body was facing. The administration carried out anonymous polling during fall 2021 to better understand young people鈥檚 stress and anxiety on the heels of COVID. 

鈥淭hey found that our student body was, on the whole, generally more stressed than the average stress level of high school students, but had very few cases of extreme anxiety,鈥� said the high school senior. 鈥淢ost people reported having resources and people to talk to, friends to reach out to, good support systems.鈥�

At the same time, in his own life, Surprenant deepened several friendships as his school rolled back COVID protocols like mandatory masking. 

Because lockdown had taken away so much, 鈥渆veryone wanted to make the most of the relationships that they had going forward,鈥� he said.

School safety

Just weeks after the school shooting at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, left 19 fourth graders and two teachers dead, several students had school safety at the front of their minds.

Babcock said he personally knows two victims of mass shootings. A friend of his survived the in Douglas County, Colorado, and his older sibling鈥檚 close friend died in the of 2012. There鈥檚 a psychological impact of proximity to those sorts of tragedies, he explained. 

鈥淚t does really make you feel like you always have to look for an exit,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his year, it was really painful to see that nothing had really changed since my senior year (in high school) when the Parkland shooting had happened.鈥�

At Za鈥橬ia Stinson鈥檚 school in Charlotte, North Carolina, a bomb threat this year brought a SWAT team to her school, complete with a bomb-sniffing canine unit. The disruption made her reflect on just how difficult it would be to learn in an environment where such threats are more common. 

鈥淚t’s so sad that someone goes to school to learn and has to worry about, 鈥榃ill this be my last day or not?鈥欌�� said Stinson.

Missing school

High rates of absenteeism plagued school districts across the country this year, as students missed class due to quarantine and poverty-related issues exacerbated by the pandemic, such as needing to work part-time jobs. 

In Floyd鈥檚 Tennessee district, she reported that a bunch of her peers 鈥渒ind of just gave up on school.鈥� By her estimation, more people were absent than usual throughout the year, but not necessarily because of COVID 鈥� instead taking days off 鈥渢o live their life a little bit more.鈥� 

鈥淭hey kind of just went and did what they wanted to after being kind of locked down for two years,鈥� said Floyd.

For Joshua Oh, who just finished eighth grade in Gambrills, Maryland, many of his peers struggled to stay up to date with their coursework after testing positive for COVID and being forced to quarantine. He personally caught the virus over winter break when he wouldn鈥檛 fall behind in school, but infections went up this past spring amid the second Omicron surge.

鈥淎 lot of people’s grades have tanked 鈥� and the teachers haven’t really exempted them from grades,鈥� he said. 鈥淔or friends, they’ve had to either email teachers or just have a low grade or just try to get extra credit or re-do [assignments] and get a late work [penalty], which deducts a couple points.鈥�

Devin Walton, a rising high school sophomore in South Torrance, California also struggled with missing school. But in a reminder that normal teenage life events also continued through the pandemic, his absences had nothing to do with COVID.

鈥淚 would sleep almost the entire day and whenever I did wake up, I would just go eat something and then go back to sleep. And my mom was getting worried about me because she thought I was sick or I was depressed,鈥� Walton explained. 鈥淏ut it turns out, I was just going through a major growth spurt and I was getting really tired.鈥�

Paths forward

Most of the young people on the council agreed that life is still not fully back to normal after the pandemic, and teachers can be a key support.

鈥淪tudents right now are really feeling disconnected,鈥� said Babcock. 

It goes a long way when educators find meaningful ways to connect with young people, he believes. 

鈥淛ust making sure that, from the first day, teachers are making themselves known as a safe person for a variety of issues, whether it’s bullying, LGBT issues, experiences of race in the classroom,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here are so many ways that you can make yourself open to students.鈥�

Thoughtful personal touches can also have a big impact on improving classroom environment, reflected Mahbuba Sumiya, who finished high school in Detroit with virtual learning and is now a rising sophomore at Harvard University.

鈥淒uring the remote senior year of high school, some of my teachers would play music in the background while everyone was getting into the meeting to bring the energy,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he small things that educators do inside and outside the classroom to share love mean a lot to students like me.鈥�

Another tactic, suggested Oh, is more hands-on activities in class. At the end of the year, he designed and built a diorama of an environmentally friendly eco-city in his science class, which, he said, allowed him to feel engaged and have fun at the same time.

Educational games that encourage healthy use of phones and laptops, like can also be a good tactic to boost engagement, suggested Stinson of North Carolina.

To make up for time lost to the pandemic, teachers should encourage students to link learning to the real-world issues they care about, suggested Camacho, in L.A.

鈥淓ducators that listen to their students will quickly discover what their students are passionate about. Educators, now more than ever, should push students to explore their passions,鈥� he said.

For all COVID robbed them of, Walton observed, it also was a potent reminder to be grateful for the day-to-day interactions that in-person school can bring.

鈥淲hen I was in lockdown, I thought, 鈥極h yeah you have to stay at home all day, this is going to be a nice long break,鈥欌�� the California teen said. 鈥淎nd the longer I was at home, I was more like, 鈥楾his is starting to get boring. It’s not as fun as I thought it would be.鈥欌��

鈥淭he more we were in lockdown because of this pandemic virus, the more we realized how much school meant to us.鈥�

Years from now, if Stinson has children one day, she knows what she鈥檒l tell them about living through this extraordinary period.

鈥淚 would tell my kids that this was a very crazy time. It was a weird time.鈥�

This story was brought to you via 麻豆精品鈥檚 Student Council initiative, an effort to boost youth voices in our reporting. America鈥檚 Promise Alliance helped in the recruiting of our diverse 11-member council and the idea was conceived as part of Asher Lehrer-Small’s Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism Fellowship.

Some, like Joshua Oh, who started sixth grade in 2019-20, never experienced a full year free from virus worry at the campus they鈥檙e now leaving. To mark the occasion, we invited a few members of 麻豆精品鈥檚 Student Council who are graduating, including Oh, to take stock of the current moment, reflect on the highs and lows of pandemic schooling and share what they鈥檝e learned along the way.

Joshua Oh, graduating from Crofton Middle School in Gambrills, Maryland

My views on life and school have drastically changed from the start of middle school to my graduation. I was excited about a new school and new people when I first started middle school in sixth grade. I remember being sad that there was no recess and having a completely different group of friends.

That first week is always the most nerve-racking but fun, meeting new people and fitting into groups. As the year went on, I realized how diverse the people were, unlike in elementary school. The kids were racially different and there was less teasing. I found friends that I connected more with and started to drift away from my original friend group. I met new people and got to talk to them every day until the pandemic started. 

At the time, everyone was happy getting a break from school, not knowing how long this break would be. Those two weeks increased from weeks to months until the lockdown started. I would watch the news and be scared that people I know could get COVID and die. I felt like I would be stuck inside forever and the world was falling apart. I had peers around me losing family members and it really scared me when a close friend’s uncle passed away. I was afraid the same thing could happen to the people I care about.

I was happy playing video games and doing nothing, but virtual school started a short time later. It felt like the first day of school again, but communication with everyone had stopped. The rest of the year was easy, with little teaching and easy assignments. 

The school system used summer break to fix virtual learning, and when the new school year started, we got actual work. There were no requirements for camera use during class, so nobody used them. Nobody knew what each other looked like, making it difficult to break the ice. At the time, I didn鈥檛 have much communication with my friends except through video games. I lost a couple and gained a few friends, but this was a low point in my middle school career. 

Things started to get easier when hybrid learning was introduced, although optional. I was one of the few to pick this and got to make new friends. I didn鈥檛 learn much from this year, but it is something I will never forget. Restrictions started to decrease during that summer, and I hung out with my friends more. When the new school year started, in-person learning was required, along with masks. School started to feel normal again, and masks became optional. As the year went on, COVID faded from the news. It felt like COVID was gone and as if a dark cloud was lifted from everyone’s head.

I鈥檓 now in the last month of middle school, and it feels surreal that it鈥檚 all ending. In sixth grade, I thought middle school would be fun and would last a while, but it is almost over. I have changed a lot from the start of sixth grade to the end of eighth grade. I skipped a year where many things changed, including me, and I don鈥檛 get excited about the same things. I used to be insanely happy about things like Christmas and Halloween, but COVID has made me care about other things like time with friends and family. 

I hope in high school COVID won鈥檛 cloud my thoughts and I want to spend more time having fun with friends. It feels like COVID is attached to middle school and high school will be a fresh start. COVID will affect my future challenges by helping me realize that these problems are small. I know that I have overcome a huge obstacle and am much stronger and more resilient than I was before. The pandemic has taught me how to adapt when situations like these occur and changed who I am.

Diego Camacho, graduating from Collegiate Charter High School in Los Angeles, California

There is a strange connection between journalism and physics. At their very best, both subjects seek to expose an objective, unyielding truth. That concept, the search for reality, has motivated all my academic endeavors. 

But, unfortunately, COVID limited my high school鈥檚 ability to offer avenues for exploring the two subjects I love so much.

Whatever underlying issues were present at my school were exacerbated by the pandemic. With a small campus and student body of 200, certain problems can become more prominent than in larger schools. The resignation of a teacher, for example, may mean the loss of an entire class for the remainder of the year. Course offerings one year may be very different from the previous years. 

My school once had a physics class. After talking with the school about the possibility of taking AP Physics for my junior year, I learned the school no longer offered it and only allowed two AP classes per student, per year, assigned based on grade. Thankfully, dual-enrollment at East Los Angeles Community College allowed me to take classes the school was unable to offer.

Many educators I had the pleasure of meeting my sophomore year left the following year. We lost our PE/biology teacher, an English teacher, our enrichment coordinator and a mathematics teacher, among quite a few others. For a small school, this was incredibly difficult. On top of that, our principal resigned that summer. Since then, the school has had many temporary principals. That looming, hectic uncertainty affected students鈥� ability to plan ahead.

Without a mathematics teacher, the school had to combine their pre-algebra and pre-calculus courses. Seniors and juniors shared a Zoom call, relying on Khan Academy鈥檚 free online courses rather than live teaching. 

With in-person learning for senior year, I asked for an exemption to my school鈥檚 two AP class policy, hoping to stuff my senior schedule full. My school counselor was unable to grant me the exemption.

Although I did not have many STEM opportunities at my high school, my passion for physics and journalism never waivered. COVID, teacher shortages, and strict policies were stepping stones to greater things. There are countless avenues for discovery, learning and growth outside of school. From dual enrollment at your local community college, to student research, to internship opportunities at the L.A. Times, genuine passions can鈥檛 be quelled. 

Currently, I am preparing for a gap year of learning, project-finishing and internship-taking before I make a college commitment. Now, with the conclusion of my senior year, I am optimistic that future graduating classes at my former school will not face the COVID-related challenges I did.

Kota Babcock, graduate of Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado

After eight jam-packed semesters at CSU, I walked across the stage and received my diploma on May 13. It鈥檚 only been about a month since then, but already, leaving behind my identity as a student has been harder than I expected. 

With each exam, I found myself craving the freedom from homework, on-campus jobs and the stress of student life. As I now walk away, it鈥檚 strange to think that for the first time since I was 5  years old, I cannot call myself a student.

While in undergrad, I was deeply involved in HIV and LGBTQ activism. As the chair of All The T.E.A. (Teach, Empower, Advocate), I drove over an hour from Fort Collins to Denver to coordinate workshops, attend local community conferences and to meet with the activists who taught me everything I know. My efforts with All The T.E.A. shaped my interest in fighting antisemitism on campus and in advocating for the full inclusion of minority students at Colorado State. 

I also worked as KCSU-FM鈥檚 news director and as the Rocky Mountain Collegian鈥檚 arts and culture director, interviewing a variety of musicians, small business owners and other notable locals. 

I鈥檓 fortunate enough to have found a job right away as a general assignment reporter at a local Wyoming newspaper, the Laramie Boomerang. But striking the balance with continuing my activism work now presents a new challenge. 

I still make my way to Denver each month (sometimes virtually) to work toward the same goal All The T.E.A. has worked toward since I was in middle school: empowering people living with HIV and advocating for a better future for all people impacted by HIV. A difficulty we faced since 2020 continues to plague the organization, as COVID-19 made it nearly impossible for people to consider HIV an urgent enough public health and social justice issue to volunteer their time to. As our organization moves toward the future, we鈥檙e building partnerships to continue offering educational resources, free HIV testing, a shared community and more. 

As for life in Laramie, it鈥檚 much different than the experiences I had growing up in Denver, although somewhat similar to the college town I spent the last four years in. Shopping options are a bit scarce, as are easy-to-find LGBTQ spaces for non-students compared to any city in Colorado. Despite Wyoming not having a single gay bar, the aftermath of pushed forward intense change in the small city. When Shepard attended the University of Wyoming in Laramie in 1998, two men from the city beat Shepard and left him for dead outside of town, and Shepard later died in a Fort Collins hospital. Now, most of downtown Laramie is covered in gay or transgender pride flags, and the city recently celebrated its sixth annual pride festival. The story of Shepard haunted me in my youth, especially as my friends and I dealt with anti-gay bullies throughout middle school just over 100 miles south. His death deeply impacted the local communities in both Colorado and Wyoming, and it served as a warning to openly LGBTQ people throughout my pre-teen and teenage years. Fort Collins, it seems to me, has largely moved on while Laramie remains mournful. 

Looking back on my career as a student, I sometimes grieve what the pandemic took from me 鈥� my study abroad plans were canceled twice 鈥� but I also reflect on what I鈥檝e learned. Student media taught me to stand up as loudly as possible for change. From my coursework to my two on-campus jobs and my work with the Hillel Jewish Center at CSU, I learned that to survive as a minority in any space that marginalizes your experiences, you must be as loud as you can be. 

While I never went into journalism with the intent of uncovering secrets or exposing corruption, I did go into it knowing that people in powerful places don鈥檛 typically want social change or transparency, and fighting back against that is my goal in everything I do. As I move into my adult life, I won鈥檛 forget this lesson and I hope that incoming college students can understand this as well.

This story was brought to you via 麻豆精品鈥檚 Student Council initiative, an effort to boost youth voices in our reporting. America鈥檚 Promise Alliance helped in the recruiting of our diverse 11-member council and the idea was conceived as part of Asher Lehrer-Small’s Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism Fellowship.

鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 feel safe going to school,鈥� said Joshua Oh, a rising ninth grader from Gambrills, Maryland.

鈥淓ven if you 鈥� don’t go to the school where the shooting happened, it鈥檚 still something that鈥檚 in the back of your head,鈥� said Mahbuba Sumiya, who grew up in Detroit and is now a sophomore at Harvard University.

On Monday evening, 麻豆精品 convened members of its Student Council to speak about the ripple effects of the tragic event on their own school communities and to share their thoughts on the issue of gun safety more broadly. Several young people relayed anecdotes illustrating that fear and worry spurred by the shooting reverberate far beyond Texas.

Ameera Eshtewi attends an Islamic private high school in Portland, Oregon. In May alone, there have been multiple Islamophobic attacks on mosques in her community, she said. Those events plus the Texas shooting made it hard for her not to imagine the worst at her school.

鈥淭hinking that someone could go into an elementary school and murder so many kids and then they could hear about our school, and on top of that we鈥檙e Muslim 鈥� they could easily come in and do the same,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 felt terrified.鈥�

At Devin Walton鈥檚 high school in South Torrance, California, the ninth grader began to anxiously take account of safety measures in a way he never had before. He noticed the location of school security officers, surveillance cameras, the locks on the door. He began to imagine how, if an intruder were to enter his classroom, he could use the fire extinguisher hanging on the wall as a possible weapon to defend himself.

鈥淎fter hearing about this school shooting, I鈥檝e started to consider to myself, like, 鈥楢m I safe enough at my school?鈥欌�� he said.

For Maxwell Surprenant, a high school senior in Needham, Massachusetts, an otherwise innocuous task became clouded by worry. The day after the shooting, he was helping carry supplies outside for a pre-graduation ceremony. Having read the news that the Uvalde shooter entered through a side door propped open by a teacher, he couldn鈥檛 avoid a creeping thought.

鈥淚 was looking at some of the doors and wondering, all it takes is for one of these to be left open one day,鈥� he told 麻豆精品 in a phone call separate from the group meeting. 

鈥淭his shouldn’t be something that we should be concerned about,鈥� added Sumiya, who noted that gun possession was common among her peers in high school to protect themselves from street violence, striking fear in her heart and rendering learning nearly impossible. 

鈥淲e’re going to school to get the education that we need. Why is our safety and our life on the verge of, like, you never know what can happen?鈥�

With March For Our Lives youth organizers planning a in Washington, D.C. to demand universal background checks, students agreed that school safety and the prevention of shootings is one of the major issues on the minds of young people today.

鈥淚t’s such an important issue to us, to this generation, particularly because this generation, Gen Z, has really experienced it,鈥� said Diego Camacho, a high school senior in Los Angeles, California.

School shootings have over the past decade. Excluding 2020 when schools were largely remote, there has not been a full calendar year since 2018 鈥� the year of the mass shooting at Florida鈥檚 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that galvanized the March For Our Lives movement 鈥� with fewer than 27 classroom attacks. The highest annual tally before that, spanning from 1999 to 2017, was 16 school shootings. Through only five months this year, there have already been 24.

There鈥檚 a cognitive dissonance to hearing about events that are as terrifying and heart wrenching as school shootings with such regularity and needing to continue going about their lives, expressed students. It鈥檚 weird, said Oh, that when a school shooting happens, it almost feels like a 鈥渘ormal event.鈥�

鈥淚 felt a little numb,鈥� added Eshtewi. 鈥淚 was angry that I felt numb because this shouldn’t be something normal.鈥�

The Uvalde shooting was the deadliest attack on a school since the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, which killed 20 children and six educators. 

In the days after the shooting, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced plans to and ban military-style firearms, including a mandatory buy back program set to begin at the end of the year. Meanwhile, after visiting with survivors and families of victims in Uvalde, Texas, U.S. President Joe Biden said policy changes such as background check requirements or assault weapon bans , which remains gridlocked on the issue.

But while Washington stands still, students are mulling what they think should be the path forward. The Uvalde shooting, said Suprenant, spurred meaningful conversations within his friend group, which spans the full political spectrum.

The high school seniors thought about the stark difference between the requirements for gun ownership and for driving a car鈥攂oth activities that can pose a deadly threat to oneself and others. To earn a driver鈥檚 license, young people must first take a permit test, complete a driver鈥檚 education course and log a specified number of training hours, the teenagers observed, but no comparable preparations are required to purchase a gun in this country.

The accused shooter, who didn鈥檛 have , crashed his grandparents鈥� car before opening fire at Robb Elementary, authorities said. A week earlier, he was able to legally purchase two AR-15-style rifles, according to authorities.

鈥淚t鈥檚 just common sense to all of us that the process should be longer in terms of obtaining a weapon,鈥� said Surprenant. 

The accused shooter crashed his grandparents鈥� car before opening fire at Robb Elementary, authorities said. His grandfather that his grandson, who legally purchased two AR-15-style rifles last month, didn鈥檛 have a driver鈥檚 license.

Sumiya agreed that gun control measures are overdue, but also pointed to deeper issues like poverty and housing insecurity, which she thinks played into the high crime rates where she grew up.

鈥淲hat [are] the underlying concerns making someone go out of their way and then buy a gun?鈥� she wondered. Teachers should be raising those questions and 鈥渢alking about issues like that in the classroom setting.鈥�

Surprenant offered advice to educators looking to facilitate dialogue on gun safety: Give students access to resources through which to inform themselves, but then 鈥渆ncourage kids coming up with their own solutions.鈥�

With little to show for the efforts of adult policymakers to advance gun safety measures, Eshtewi understands that young leaders may have to pick up the torch. That frustrates her, but she sees no other choice.

鈥淲ith any issue I remind myself, if not us, then who?鈥� said the high school junior.

This story was brought to you via 麻豆精品鈥檚 Student Council initiative, an effort to boost youth voices in our reporting. America鈥檚 Promise Alliance helped in the recruiting of our diverse 11-member council and the idea was conceived as part of Asher Lehrer-Small’s Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism Fellowship.

But rather than comments whispered in hallways, students frequently share those juicy nuggets through anonymous online 鈥溾�� accounts on Facebook and Instagram that much of the student body follows religiously.

鈥淧eople will be talking about it, like, 鈥楧id you just see the new confession?鈥� 鈥� said Samantha Farrow, a junior at Stuy.

Many confessions are harmless 鈥� complimenting a classmate鈥檚 smile or admitting apprehension about prom 鈥� but others target and bully students. In Farrow鈥檚 freshman year, a post called her and two peers overweight and unattractive. Dozens of students came to their defense, she said, reassuring them the insult was completely untrue. But still, the post affected her.

鈥淚 was mad and I was upset,鈥� Farrow remembered. 鈥淚t was very degrading to my self-esteem as a 14-year old.鈥�

Accounts like Stuy Confessions are hardly rare, students across the country report. Though the pages , lockdown may have increased their popularity and influence as teens lost the ability to connect in person for months on end.

When schools en masse shifted online, much of young people鈥檚 socializing also migrated into virtual spaces like Discord servers, Google Hangouts and TikTok. Now two years later, even as pandemic restrictions have fallen across the country, many online communities remain, students say, and impact K-12 classrooms in ways that adults fail to understand.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really going over [educators鈥橾 heads,鈥� Farrow told 麻豆精品. 鈥淪o much stuff happens on Facebook and Instagram, the confessions accounts, and they have no idea.鈥�

鈥淲hat people post on social media kinda seeps into the classroom,鈥� she added.

In fall 2021, when Diego Camacho鈥檚 Los Angeles high school returned to in-person learning, students began taking pictures of their peers 鈥� sometimes eating, sometimes of their shoes under the bathroom stall 鈥� and posting them online anonymously without consent, he told 麻豆精品. 

He and other students 鈥渨ere constantly looking over our shoulders, looking around when we ate and some [of us] refused to use the bathroom out of fear [we] would end up on the pages,鈥� said the high school senior. 

It took school administration two months to shut down the account, he said. While the page was active, it 鈥渃reated a lot of distrust between students,鈥� said Camacho.

At Mia Miron鈥檚 middle school in nearby Pomona, California, Instagram pages of a similar style continue to pop up despite old accounts getting banned on numerous occasions, she said. With page titles based on the phrase 鈥淟orbeer Lookalikes,鈥� a play on their school鈥檚 name, users send photos they took of classmates to the accounts via direct message, and the page administrator then posts the images without indicating who submitted them.

鈥淚 just followed it to make sure nobody that I know would get hurt by not knowing their photo was on there,鈥� explained Miron. 

Twice, the accounts have shared pictures of her sitting at her desk. The eighth grader doesn鈥檛 know who runs the account, she said, and did not give consent for those images to be posted. 

鈥淚 wouldn’t like my photo to be on there without my permission,鈥� she told 麻豆精品.

While Miron says she hasn鈥檛 taken the posts personally, a friend of hers was cyberbullied on the page, she said, which took a toll on the middle schooler鈥檚 mental health. 

麻豆精品 spoke with eight students in 6th through 12th grade and one college student about their experience of social media鈥檚 impact on education post-COVID. Most agreed that lockdown initially forced them to lean more heavily on online platforms to stay connected with peers and that some of those habits have since stuck around.

But the proliferation of online content and connection has also delivered some positive effects, students emphasized.

Kota Babcock, a senior at Colorado State University, said his roommate joined a pandemic Discord server they still use for weekly horror movie screenings. High schooler Ameera Eshtewi, of Portland, Oregon, hones her programming skills as a member of the online community . And Joshua Oh, a Gambrills, Maryland middle schooler, said Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter helped him and his peers quickly spread the word to wear pink in support of victims of an alleged sexual assault at a nearby high school.

Circulated within Oh鈥檚 student body, a satirical TikTok account pokes fun without crossing a line, the teen said. The 鈥渟lander鈥� page posts videos about students and teachers that he finds 鈥渇unny when they are true.鈥�

One of a cowboy coughing heavily and falling down on a train track is captioned, 鈥淲hat Lois thinks will happen if she doesn鈥檛 have gum for 00000.1 seconds.鈥� Another video with the caption 鈥淏randon trying to convince his ex to take him back鈥� features a man in the rain to a Lil Nas X song. 

In a key difference from the pages at Miron and Camacho鈥檚 schools, none of the videos include images of actual students. 

And in Pomona, as a counter to some of the online toxicity within Miron鈥檚 middle school, a student also created a school-based TikTok account featuring an 鈥渁ppreciation post for the girls that got put down on that other Lorbeer account.鈥� The pictures students鈥� smiling faces set to B.o.B鈥檚 Nothing on You.

Instagram and other social media can have degrading effects on youth mental health, including eating disorders and suicidal ideation, particularly for teen girls bombarded with unhealthy body image standards. Facebook (now Meta), Instagram鈥檚 parent company, has tracked the harms for years, internal documents reported by the , but implemented few measures to curb the addictiveness of its app, as teen users have driven much of its popularity.

Even when students use accounts to uplift each other, ZaNia Stinson, a high school student in Charlotte, North Carolina, said that she and her peers鈥� dependence on social media often makes them less present IRL 鈥� in real life. 

Teachers often collect phones during class, she said, and when the devices get returned afterward, 鈥渨e don鈥檛 pay attention in the halls so we bump into people, like our heads are glued to [our] phones.鈥�

During free periods at Stuyvesant, said Farrow, students will often sit next to each other in the hallway without saying a word, just scrolling. The tendency, she believes, to ignore human contact in favor of digital has worsened since COVID. From time to time, she herself pulls up Instagram during class without the teacher knowing, she admits.

Yet one online outlet has provided consistent solace for her since early in the pandemic. In June 2020, the high schooler created a Twitter stan account, or fan account, for K-pop megastars BTS, who she jokingly described as her 鈥渂iggest passion in life.鈥� She has fun chatting with other fans of the group and appreciates the low stakes because she doesn鈥檛 know any of the other users in real life, she said.

Social media is 鈥渁 good outlet if you know how to use it the right way,鈥� said Farrow. 鈥淏ut I don鈥檛 think a lot of people do.鈥�

This story was brought to you via 麻豆精品鈥檚 Student Council initiative, an effort to boost youth voices in our reporting. America鈥檚 Promise Alliance helped in the recruiting of our diverse 11-member council and the idea was conceived as part of Asher Lehrer-Small’s Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism Fellowship.

We have assembled a diverse 11-member Student Council to weigh in on K-12 and higher education issues over the coming months. Ranging in age from 13 to 20, these young people hail from Oregon, Michigan, Tennessee and everywhere in between. In conversations students sandwiched between dance rehearsals, baseball tryouts and AP exam prep, members shared with us their background, what they love to do and what drives them. 

They鈥檙e advocates for LGBTQ rights, for students with learning differences, for homeless youth and other causes that reflect their experiences. They listen to K-pop, nurture their collection of houseplants and unwind by watching episodes of the HBO pirate comedy .

As experts in their own school communities, we expect that the anecdotes and perspectives Student Council members share may tip us off to important storylines we might otherwise miss.

鈥淎 lot of the time [student voices] are pushed to the side or patronized like, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 so cute,鈥欌�� said council member Samantha Farrow, 16, of Brooklyn. 鈥淣o, we actually have valuable things to say.鈥�

We鈥檒l tap members for their thoughts and reactions on issues ranging from youth mental health and COVID safety to academic recovery and teaching accurate history. Through regular check-ins, we鈥檒l chart what life is like at school, at home and in their social lives as we enter the waning months of the third COVID-affected school year. By the end, we hope to produce a mosaic of youth reflections on education during this chapter of the pandemic.

If you have a question you鈥檇 like posed to the council, let us know by emailing Asher Lehrer-Small: asher@the74million.org. The more interest a topic receives, the more we鈥檒l strive to address it in our coverage.

Our sincere gratitude goes to , a coalition advocating for U.S. youth, which helped recruit candidates by introducing this opportunity to young people in its nationwide network.

Here are the members of 麻豆精品鈥檚 inaugural Student Council:

AMEERA ESHTEWI

Ameera Eshtewi is a high school junior in Portland, Oregon. She loves computer coding and has pursued the discipline since her father signed her up for classes in fourth grade. Twenty-eight out of the 30 kids in the course were boys, she remembered. In a male-dominated field, 鈥淚鈥檓 all about women in STEM,鈥� said Ameera. She鈥檚 also a runner and enjoys crafting poetry. As a young Libyan-American woman, she looks forward to speaking out against Islamophobia in school. 鈥淎 lot of Muslim women who wear the hijab are getting attacked,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not fair.鈥�

ZANIA STINSON

ZaNia Stinson, 15, lives in Charlotte, North Carolina where she makes it her mission to give back to her community. Having spent the first 18 months of her life living with her biological grandmother in a homeless shelter before being adopted by what she calls her 鈥渘ow-forever family,鈥� the high schooler distributes packages of food, drink and toiletries to women and children who lack permanent housing. 鈥淚 know how it feels and I鈥檝e been in their situation once,鈥� said ZaNia. 

She looks forward to speaking out about youth hunger and anxiety. When she鈥檚 not in school or distributing her 鈥済o-go bags,鈥� she loves listening to gospel music and dancing 鈥� especially in the styles of jazz, funk and hip hop.

KOTA BABCOCK

Kota Babcock, 20, studies journalism and media communications at Colorado State University. For years, he鈥檚 been involved in LGBTQ and HIV activism, working to educate adults who deal with queer students. The advocacy is personal. 鈥淚 lost a lot of my friends when I came out鈥� in seventh grade, said Kota, who is transgender, but his activism allowed him to build relationships within the LGBTQ community. 鈥淭here was a lot of joy from just being able to connect with each other,鈥� he said. He鈥檚 also a religious Jew and looks forward to speaking about Jewish issues on campus, where he and friends have been subject to anti-Semitic harassment, he said. The soon-to-be college grad works as news director at the radio station KCSU and in his free time he indulges his love for animals by caring for his two pet frogs and his bearded dragon, Sunshine.

JOSHUA OH

Joshua Oh is a 13-year-old from Gambrills, Maryland. With his brother, he launched , an organization that helps connect local youth to volunteer opportunities. They鈥檝e run food drives, diaper and menstrual product giveaways and distributed laptops during virtual learning. Outside that work, he likes to play basketball, draw and play video games such as . As schools look to recover from the pandemic, Joshua wants the adult leaders to recognize that youth mental health is intimately tied to the friendships students nurture at school. 鈥淪ocial life is a very key component to school,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think a lot of adults don鈥檛 understand that.鈥�

MAHBUBA SUMIYA

Mahbuba Sumiya grew up in Detroit, Michigan and is now a first-year student at Harvard University where she studies computer science and economics. But she鈥檚 also an advocate for education equity. Going through Detroit public schools, she quickly became aware of glaring shortcomings: Substitute teachers covered for unfilled positions for months on end and schools often lacked the resources to help students process the traumas they experienced outside the classroom. 鈥淲hen students need mental health supports, they鈥檙e not there at all,鈥� said Mahbuba. In her free time, she enjoys honing her fashion tastes with Pinterest boards and listening to her favorite musical artist .

DIEGO CAMACHO

Diego Camacho is a high school senior in East Los Angeles. With dreams to pursue physics and journalism, his plans have been slowed by pandemic-related staffing shortages at his charter school. There鈥檚 been no physics teacher all year and the math teacher also fills in as the physical education lead. 鈥淚t takes away opportunities,鈥� Diego said. Having moved to the U.S. from Mexico in kindergarten, he empathizes with students at his school who arrived more recently. He sometimes helps them translate between English and Spanish, and looks forward to amplifying the experiences of immigrant students. The 18-year-old works in journalism for the Los Angeles Times鈥檚 program and, outside of school, competes in a style of boxing he says mimics the great Mexican fighter .

DEVIN WALTON

Devin Walton is a high school freshman in South Torrance, California where he loves studying biology and wants to one day become a veterinarian. Navigating school as a student with a learning disability, he gets distracted easily and feels that his teachers and peers don鈥檛 fully understand him. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 get it,鈥� he said. The teenager is looking forward to speaking out about his experiences to spread awareness about the supports that can help students with disabilities thrive. Having recently moved from a mostly Black and Hispanic high school with scarce resources to a better equipped majority-white and Asian campus a few miles away, Devin is also attuned to educational inequities. After school, he runs the 100m and 200m sprints for his track team, enjoys the online game and takes care of his dog, Oliver, and bearded dragon, Saurian.

SAMANTHA FARROW

Samantha Farrow, 16, lives in Brooklyn鈥檚 Brownsville neighborhood. In January, she helped organize a student walkout for COVID safety in New York City schools that mobilized thousands of youth across the city. On the Student Council, she鈥檚 looking forward to speaking out for pandemic safety in classrooms and sharing her perspective on how schools can better respond to students鈥� needs. 鈥淎 lot of the time [student voices] are pushed to the side or patronized like, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 so cute.鈥� 鈥� No, we actually have valuable things to say,鈥� said Samantha. Outside the classroom, she performs in her school鈥檚 theater group 鈥� its most recent production was the musical comedy 鈥� and enjoys listening to K-pop groups like mega-stars .

SYDNEE FLOYD

Sydnee Floyd is a high school senior in Franklin, Tennessee. After moving from a small town in Kentucky to the greater Nashville area in middle school and experiencing what she described as the 鈥渃ulture shock鈥� of a larger city, including meeting people without permanent housing, she launched the nonprofit to help those in need. But when the pandemic hit, the high schooler, who usually likes to keep busy, 鈥渇elt really alone and really isolated,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 just sit here all day, that鈥檚 just not me. And I fell into a really deep depression.鈥� So Sydnee launched an to destigmatize those experiences. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 want other people to feel like they are alone in this fight,鈥� she said. Outside school and volunteer work, the teen enjoys photography and plans to pursue a career in emergency medicine.

MIA MIRON

Mia Miron is a 13-year-old from Pomona, California who loves taking care of plants and watching Korean dramas. Her parents immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico before she was born and mostly speak Spanish, so the teen helps out with her family鈥檚 business selling baked goods by responding to Instagram orders in English. Her English proficiency has reached the point where she can transition out of her English Language Learner courses next year, but “it’s been a long journey,” she said. In addition to raising awareness about the challenges faced by multilingual learners, she also plans to speak out against cyberbullying over social media, which she said has become rampant. 鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of breaking people at school,鈥� she said.

MAXWELL SURPRENANT

Max Surprenant is a high school senior in Needham, Massachusetts. Having engaged in service work since he was a young boy, he believes giving back can be a way to help combat mental health challenges. Depression and anxiety often 鈥渃ome from a feeling of being powerless 鈥� and I think service is a really empowering tool,鈥� he said. His volunteer organization is organizing its 98th event since COVID-19 struck, including delivering 鈥渂lessing bags鈥� complete with food, hygiene products and a hand-cut paper heart to those in need. When he鈥檚 not engaged in community service, you can find Max writing, which he plans to study next year at Harvard University, reading Russian literature or holding it down behind home plate as the catcher on his high school baseball team.