A wake-up call for San Mateo County youth

While the decision to close schools was taken under the growing threat of a global pandemic, the initial plan to implement distance learning for two weeks was not absurd. The actual 78 weeks that many students in San Mateo County spent at home in isolation could not have been a solution that factored in the health and education of our youth. In fact, numerous studies and experts, if we must really not simply trust our common sense, demonstrated that school closures have had an immense impact on young people’s academic results with increased distractions and limited resources. It also had an impact on their physical health with decreased physical activity and sleep efficiency as well as increased sedentary time, and on their mental health with decreased self-esteem, higher risk of addiction behavior and cyberbullying, and increased vulnerability to avoidance behavior, depressive mood and anxiety.

The young people I know are all aware of these struggles, as they have firsthand experience with them. Yet, we have excluded ourselves from the dialogue to the extent of allowing ourselves to be stepped on. To show this, we can easily compare the length of our school closures (around 78 weeks) with those from around the world. France had 12 weeks, the United Kingdom 27, and Germany and the critically hit Italy 38. In fact, only 23 of the 210 world territories in the world had schools at least partially closed for more than 70 weeks, 21 of them being considered developing countries (UNESCO data, December 2021). In short, San Mateo County, along with developing countries where education is far from a priority, ranks in the places where schools were closed for the longest periods of time.

The measures taken in San Mateo County in response to COVID-19 were unjust and sacrificed the development of the community’s youth. Yet, it is easy to point fingers when we have stayed silent and allowed these decisions to be taken. The countries I’ve listed above share something that we missed, young people who protested and made sure their voices were heard, an essential aspect of democracy that remains acceptable during the pandemic. For a generation so socially invested, that I’ve seen in protests to defend the rights of marginalized groups and performing school walkouts to bring awareness to gun violence, I am left to wonder: Where was that energy when it came to defending our rights as young people? While agencies like UNICEF have been fighting for quality education and children’s rights by urging governments to keep schools open, it is up to us to revise our current placement in society. No one will fight for us better than ourselves, and it’s time that we make sure our voices are heard.

Born in Paris, having been through the San Mateo public schools system, and currently working in Italy in a youth center and preschool, Tristan Kinkade Gogny is an aspiring educator advocating for young people’s rights.