 You tuned into the COVID-19 community report here on KDRT LP, 95.7 FM in Davis, California. I'm Autumn Lab A-Reno and today is Tuesday, March 2nd, 2021, and this is Episode 54. We're sharing local news and resources focusing on what's impacting Davis and nearby cities in Yolo County during the COVID-19 pandemic. This month, I've been focusing on the return to in-person instruction in the Davis Joint Unified School District. I've interviewed administrators, teachers, and parents, and now I'm speaking with students from various grades throughout the DJUSD. Today you'll hear from Harper and Henry, who are sixth and seventh graders, respectively, and next week I'll chat with two high school seniors. In the youth advocacy and mentoring work I do, I believe it's critical to hear directly from young folks, especially when they're so deeply impacted by decisions that adults are making for and around them. I want to be clear that I had no agenda when I talked with these kids around school reopening. I just wanted to know how they were feeling about it, and with the two student voices you'll hear today, you'll learn they have very different perspectives on the matter. From my perspective, these may be among the more important interviews I've done in the past year. 50 years from now, many of us won't be around, and it's this younger generation who will be asked to share what they remember about the COVID-19 pandemic. What has this time been like for them? Stay tuned and we'll start finding out in just a few minutes. Before I get into that, I'm going to take just a moment of silence for the over 500,000 Americans who have died from COVID-19. I also pause to honor the tragic death of Davis resident Jennifer Comey last week, who was killed by a falling tree limb in a local park. And in local news, last week, the state of California announced that Yolo County would move into the substantial or red tier in the state's blueprint for a safer economy after we'd met the red tiers metrics for two consecutive weeks. As a result, many local businesses and activities have been allowed to expand capacity or resume operations. Numerous restrictions will apply while Yolo County is in the red tier. For example, gyms can be open but at 10% capacity and indoor dining at restaurants can open but at 25% capacity. Rather than read you a long laundry list of what's open at what level, I'll simply refer you to the COVID-19 resources at the county's website, YoloCounty.org. I do want to note that we're all still asked to exercise caution and good judgment as we're far from reaching herd immunity. On a public information call last week, Dr. Amy Sisson, the county's public health officer said, that's important so that we can avoid the roller coaster we've been on. Our numbers improve and we move to the red tier and then our numbers get bad again. So the advice to not mingle freely and to mask up and distance is still very much in effect. You may have noticed the big tents in downtown Davis. The city placed them there in partnership with the Davis Downtown Business Association last December to further support an initiative called Open Air Davis. The tents were funded with a county CARES Act grant and the tents and tables were meant to aid local restaurants while state guidance restricted businesses to take out food only. The city became aware of a large gathering that took place recently at one of the downtown tents sites. Contrary to COVID-19 safety protocols, changes were implemented. The city has removed the large tent from G Street between second and third streets and the slightly smaller tent from the East Street Plaza area. There is no general open container zone on G Street and all tinted areas will now be assigned as temporary use permit spaces where businesses are responsible for space management, cleanliness, and alcohol use. And you can visit cityofdavis.org for more info. In other news, Healthy Davis Together has made significant changes in the past week. The collaborative effort between UC Davis and the City of Davis provides free saliva-based asymptomatic COVID-19 testing to anyone who lives or works in Davis. In the weeks and months ahead, federally qualified healthcare centers Communicare will serve as a key conduit for getting vaccines to the county's hardest-to-reach populations, including the uninsured, undocumented, and low income residents. And yes, this is being funded by Healthy Davis Together. According to a recent report in the Davis Enterprise, Communicare serves as many as one out of every seven county residents providing primary, behavioral, dental, and prenatal care regardless of insurance status or ability to pay. Now Healthy Davis Together will provide staffing and administration for a Communicare vaccination clinic scheduled to open the week of March 8th in West Sacramento, which is home to some of the most culturally diverse and disadvantaged communities in Yolo County. Healthy Davis is also expanding its testing sites to include a location at Marguerite Montgomery Elementary in South Davis, and that joins three existing sites at the Mondavi Center at UC Davis, the Davis Senior Center, and the Veterans Memorial Center. And again, I'll direct you to HealthyDavisTogether.org for more info. We'll take a moment for music and be right back with our interviews. Some of the biggest impacts during the pandemic have been felt by our school communities. At the start of the pandemic, learning was temporarily disrupted and for the better part of the last year, schools, teachers, students, and their families have all had to learn how to work within a distance learning framework. I've recorded many firsthand accounts about how challenging this time has been and I wanted to make sure right now that we're hearing directly from students. So joining me right now is Harper Pfeiffer, who is a sixth grader at Birch Lane Elementary in Davis. Thanks for agreeing to talk with me today, Harper, and welcome. Thank you so much for having me. Okay, can you tell us a little bit about yourself? How old are you? Maybe, you know, do you have siblings? Do you have hobbies? That kind of thing. Yeah, so I have one sibling. I've got an older brother and his name is Ryan and right now my hobbies are La Crosse and that's the sport I play and also sand volleyball. So sports were one of those things you couldn't do during this time, then I imagine, right? Yes. Okay, so in normal times when you get to go to your school campus, what do you like about Birch Lane? Well, what I like about Birch Lane is the teachers there are fabulous. I love my teacher and it's just so nice to be able to have friends there and that's really what I like most about it. Right. So it's been almost a year that we've been in this pandemic now. Can you think back to last March when you got the news that all of a sudden you couldn't go back to your school campus? Can you remember what you felt like then? Well, I remember that on March 13th, I remember that we were excited to like, oh, yeah, we've got time off of school. This is going to be so much fun. And that was the first time at school I'd ever gotten to do the marquee and I was so excited to do it. And then when I finally got the news that we weren't going back, I kept asking my mom, do you think we're going to go back? Do you think we're going to go back? And she would just say, I don't think so. So then when I finally heard the news that we weren't going to go back and we are going to go into distance learning, it was kind of like, wait, what? Like I didn't even really know what it was or what we were going to do. So I was sort of confused and I didn't really know what was going on. That sounds about right. I think we all felt that confusion. Yeah. So let's talk about how you got used to doing school online. Before the pandemic, had you ever spent this much time on a computer before? No, never before. I'm not really like a screens person. I'd rather be reading a book. And I had never spent this much time on a computer before. I had never looked at screens for so long before. And it was really hard adjusting to that instead of the in-person, like everything's just right there for you. And it was just really difficult trying to figure out everything on Canvas and the Google classroom. So confusing and just everything brand new. So many new things to learn when you're operating. Your job is literally learning every day, right? All right. Harper, can you tell us right now what a typical school day is like for you? Well, I think a typical school day would be like every morning. Gotta get up and I've got an 830 class. So each class I have is about 30 minutes. And each day, I've got three classes a morning check-in, then I've got two other classes. And one's at 10.45 to 11.15. And then another one is at 11.30 to 12. And in between classes, I work. And after classes, I work. And it's been hard adjusting to distance learning. But I've gotten the hang of it this past year. And so it's going better now, but I'd much rather be in person. Yeah. So I know your teacher well because all three of my kids had her at one point at Birch Lane. And Mrs. Palo is a lot of fun. So what is she doing to try to make this experience a little bit more fun or engaging? Well, she's definitely making it a lot more like regular school. We've still got a transition jar and every 10 stones that we get, we get a story from her childhood, which is always so funny. And she was a very naughty child. So she did a lot of bad things. And her stories are always just so fun. And I love listening to those. Has she dressed up like a cave woman this year yet? Yes. She has dressed up like you see. She has dressed up like Benjamin Franklin. She has dressed up like a rapper. She has done all these crazy costumes that we just absolutely love. And they're super funny. Yeah, she's a really fun teacher. Okay, so let's talk about your friend relationships right now. At the age you are friends are so, so important. So what have you done to stay connected to friends during this time, especially you don't have your access to your teammates and the sports you play. So how do you stay connected? Well, something that we've been doing with our school librarian is me and some other friends we've gotten together with our school librarian. And we've done book club. And book club is one of those things that keeps us connected. We all read a book. Then the librarian comes up with some questions. And we meet over zoom. And we talk about the book. And it's just super nice to be able to be with friends even on zoom. And we've done face times. And sometimes we can see each other if it's if we're doing like, maybe like a craft day. And we all do social distancing and masks and everything. And we meet up and we do crafts and we do really fun things. So that's how I've been staying connected. Excellent. Okay, I have two more questions for you. Right now, all the grown-ups in your world are talking about how and when to go back to the classroom in person. What are your feelings about that? Would you like to go back this year? Would you like to start in the fall? Do you have an opinion about it? Well, I mean, like I know everyone I know, all my friends, we would love to go back to school just because we miss the in-person learning. We miss teachers. We miss everything. And but right now, it's really just not safe to go back. Probably the best option would be going back in the fall. And which is sad because I know that going back would just be awesome. And I think that it would be fun, though, if we could do something this year that we go and we've got so in school, we've got small groups. So maybe small groups could go outside and do something or do something at school so it feels like normal. But I just don't know if it's that it just doesn't seem that it's safe to go back right now. Full time or yeah. Yeah, I realize this is a very confusing time. And you're watching, you know, your grown-ups be confused about it too. None of us have all the answers right now for sure. Okay, I'm going to ask you one last question. And it's maybe a challenging one. But I want you to think many, many years in the future, you're going to be much older than you are now. What would you hope you remember about this time? Well, that's a tough one. But I think I would really want to remember my friends and how we've stayed connected and how fun whenever I see them, how fun it is to see them. And I would want to remember all the fun things I've done with my brother over the pandemic and all the fun things I've done with my family and some small, tiny trips that we've taken to like Tahoe or just to the beach or something like that, which I would want to remember. And I'd want to remember kind of like looking back at it a few years ahead. I think it would be like, oh my gosh, that was just such a crazy time. And then I just want to remember all the really good things. Nice. Your generation is going to have some real stories to tell out of this time. No, we sure are. Okay, I want to thank you so much for joining me and sharing this conversation. You take care and the best of luck with the rest of your school year. Thank you so much. Some of the biggest impacts during the pandemic have been felt by our school communities. At the start of the pandemic, learning was temporarily disrupted. And for the better part of the last year, schools, teachers, students and their families have all had to learn how to work within a distance learning framework. I've recorded many firsthand accounts about how challenging this time has been. And I wanted to make sure that right now we're hearing directly from students. So joining me now is Henry Shoemaker. I want to say welcome to you, Henry, and thanks for joining me. I'm happy to be here. Okay, could you please tell us a little bit about who you are? Okay, so I am currently 12 years old. I attend right now this school year. I am attending Holmes Junior High School as a seventh grader. This is my first year in middle school. And I really like sports and getting outside. Yeah. So I imagine that's been extra challenging during this time when it's hard to get together and play sports, right? It's pretty hard. Okay, Henry, it's been almost a year that we've been in the pandemic. Can you think back to last March when the news first broke and all of a sudden we had to shut things down and you couldn't go back to school? Do you remember what it felt like to find out you couldn't go back to school for the foreseeable future? So it was about, I think it was announced on a Tuesday or Monday. And the weekend before that, my dad said it was possible that we would be shutting down because of COVID. And I'm like, God, it would just be like a few weeks if it does. And it would just be like sort of like an extra spring break. I thought nothing of it at the start. And so then we go in and shut schools down. Like I was honestly a bit happy about it for the start because I mean just three weeks and then we'll get back to school. So just a nice break before summer. And then after a bit, it didn't, we didn't come back and then it just kept happening where we thought we were coming back, but then we didn't. So here we are now and we're still in it like 11 months later. Yeah. It's been a long year, hasn't it? I think you had an especially challenging experience because when the pandemic hit, you were a sixth grader and since then you've had to start at a whole new school, at homes, virtually. Yeah. I think that's a big challenge. Starting a new school is hard enough. So can you tell us what a typical school day is like for you right now? So I get up early-ish, early for most people. And I start first meeting 8.45, go for an hour meeting, break, hour meeting, break, and then hour meeting. Now I'll have lunch. But it's really split and weird because of how they're doing it in distance learning. Quarters are divided, there's like different classes and it's not at all like a normal school year. Yeah. And so right now I'm having three classes and next quarter I'll have four classes. It's weirdly divided and just a bit interesting to think about. But I typically end about probably two 30 to three-ish when I can. So it takes a bit of time. So that's a long day. How is it sitting in front of a screen all day like that? I mean, I do that for my job too, but you're 12. You're not used to that, are you? It's challenging, an hour or two. I mean, that's okay. But then you go into the realm of three hours, four hours, five hours at a time sometimes even. And it just gets exhausting. And then after that time, I don't want to go outside because after a long session at the computer I'm tired, but I want to go outside and refresh. I'm so tired that I can't go outside. So it's just this whole cycle of being tired. Yeah. So usually when you start middle school, you kind of transition there with some of the friends you had in elementary, but you start to make new friends and develop a new peer group. What are your friend relationships like now and how do you say connect it with your friends? I, to be honest here, I haven't really connected with anyone in this new school. I've just strengthened older bonds. And it's kind of tough because a lot of those bonds are outside of school. And so I have like one or two friends that I wanted in my classes and they're there and I can interact with them, but some other really good friends I had aren't in my classes. And that's really tough because it's hard to make new interactions on distance learning. I mean, if it was real school, then I probably wouldn't have trouble because I couldn't make those connections, but it's a lot harder to make connections on a screen. Do you play sports or have hobbies that you've done during this time? Yeah, I play sports. I play a lot of different ones. I do archery. That's not competitive. I just do it on my own with my, well, me and my dad. I do baseball. We've been doing this hybrid thing, you know, Mass John, pods, super safe. And I mean, it's baseball, but it's not. Those two sports, also, I've been wanting to pick up paintball, but that I wanted to, I started wanting to like last year, right? When course pandemic struck, I started like, oh, I want to play paintball, play it after the pandemic. Nope. So what do you do when you're not sitting in front of a screen for school? What kinds of things are you doing to keep yourself busy? Okay. So I have two cats and one dog, and they are great during this time. And I, I hope I'm great to them. And it's really nice to have someone there for you when, you know, your parents are dealing with your other brothers and her sisters, the siblings. And it's just nice to have someone there to come for you. I like to go and run, just run with a mask on, you know, 30 minutes, 40 minutes, and then come back. Just, you need to get that fresh air and it's really hard now. And I try to interact with my friends as many ways I can safely zoom meetings, you know, like 10 feet mask on meetups, all sorts of things. And so it's, it's, I try to go outside me with my friends and interact with my pets. Basically. It's really important to get out there and move. Okay. So right now the schools and all the grownups are talking about when and how to reopen schools. And this is a question I'm asking to all the kids I'm interviewing right now. How do you feel about returning to campus now versus in the fall? And what would you like the grownups who are making the decisions to know? I feel like we should be going to schools back to schools. We should either be going now or in a very, very close future because if you look at the studies now, it seems to be very safe with ventilators and masks on. If you do the right precautions, you can see private schools doing this. You can do to see schools, other states and in California, some in California as well. And they're all doing it safely and the numbers haven't gone up there. And so I think mask on at all times, no lunch there, no water, just mask on all the time. And ventilators, in my opinion, would be perfectly safe. And I, I think that it could very easily be set up in a month or two and people who don't want to can stay on Zoom if they want to be precautious, which I understand. But I feel like people who should want to be doing schools should be able to right now. Okay, thank you. Okay, last question for you. So your generation, many years from now, you're going to be asked to remember what it was like to live through the COVID-19 pandemic. What do you think you might remember from this time? I think I'm going to remember. I think I'm going to remember probably the start of COVID, where I was not at all prepared for it. And I think I'm also going to remember probably the end of COVID and how nice it's going to be to see friends and family again. And I'm going to be able to interact, go to real school, no mask on, no ventilators, just it'll be awesome when this is over. And I think memories stick into your mind the most when they trigger the most, you know, emotional response. So I think I'll feel a lot of joy then. So I'll remember that very well. Great. Okay, Henry, those are my questions for you. I really want to thank you for talking with me today and I appreciate hearing your perspective. Oh, it was great talking to you too.