Current NHS Climate

By Amanda Stowe and Kaelin Rising

As COVID-19 protocols have been lifted, changes in student behavior at Newtown High School have become a topic of great prevalence throughout the past few months.

After being unable to attend school functions and activities, school spirit is making its way back to normalcy, but behavioral challenges among students have been noticed by much of the faculty. This combination has led to an overall positive culture at NHS, but some feel there is still more to be done in terms of getting students back on track developmentally. The recent fights in the lobby and a boy’s bathroom and an increase in student behavioral issues have caused administrators and teachers to take notice.

The pandemic has left a lasting impact on students developmentally, both in respect to academics and emotionally.

“Personally, I have found that socially and emotionally that’s where I have seen [the effects of covid] the most, although you see it with academics as well. From the teacher standpoint, academic wise it’s a little slower than the pace we might typically have, but socially and emotionally, I really feel that a lot of students are about two years behind, which is about the gap we’ve had with the pandemic,” NHS Spanish teacher Katherine Abrego said.

These academic, social, and emotional challenges that students have faced as a result of the pandemic have led to many teachers at NHS finding that they have to adjust their lesson plans and methods of teaching to better meet the current abilities and needs of their students. These changes include slowing down the pace of teaching, giving students more independent work as a way to minimize distractions, and shortening lessons.

“As a teacher I definitely don’t feel that things are, sort of, hunky-dory as normal,” NHS English teacher Joanna Diaz said. “For circumstances that are out of our control, there has been a hesitancy to hold people accountable, and perhaps we are now seeing the ramifications of that and maybe trying to fix it.”

Teachers have found that recently there is definitely a noticeable difference in students’ behavior. This has included students acting out and having difficulty focusing during class. These were both things teachers had to deal with before the pandemic, but now they are becoming very prevalent problems in the classroom, forcing teachers to stop what they are doing to call out students in class for the cell phone usage and talking to their friends.

The effects of the pandemic have also been seen through the attendance and participation at school functions. After hybrid or fully online learning during the pandemic, and school sports became limited in attendance, school spirit experienced a dip at NHS. There were no dances, no football games, and no in-person club meetings, and students did not have much opportunity to build school spirit throughout their underclassman years.

“Just considering everything that’s been going on, I feel like we’ve all gotten used to not feeling connected with each other and the school itself,” NHS senior Cate Fischer said. “[During the pandemic], a lot of clubs had to find a way to meet online and a lot of underclassmen just never got to experience being in groups in-person, so now that they are sophomores and juniors, they just don’t feel the need to participate.”

Although participation in school activities and school spirit was really down during the height of the pandemic, as restrictions have been lifted, participation in these events have begun to return back to normal within the past few months.

During the 2021 fall athletic season, football games experienced a steep influx of attendance, with people participating in spirit nights like blackout night and blue and gold night.

“We have never ever, ever had 900 people want to go to any dance ever under any circumstance,” Longobucco said. “With covid people couldn’t do any of that, and what we really saw was when we came and had football this fall everybody came.”

Other sports have seen increased participation this year after numbers were down the past two years.

“I do track and field and for the past few years not a lot of people have joined, but this year we got like 40 sophomores, which is crazy,” NHS senior Jamie Adams said.

The annual homecoming dance also made a resurgence, with around 900 students buying tickets to attend, more than any other dance in NHS history.

Although student behavioral issues, such as physical fights, have presented themselves in recent weeks, students and staff feel these events are just repercussions of the pandemic and not a reflection of the school culture overall.

“Newtown High School is a very special place, and I’m really proud to work here, and I hope that this will be just a blip and that we move on and sort of return to who we are,” Diaz said.