SAN ANTONIO – Lanier High School senior Mea Girtin said her walk to her school was only five minutes, but now her home has been turned into her new classroom.
“It’s strange because it’s not in a classroom where you can get help from a teacher or even classmates,” said Girtin.
The San Antonio Independent School District announced plans to extend spring break until April 3.
Girtin said she is worried she will not be able to experience graduation with her friends.
“It’s a hard feeling thing to think you might not be able to walk the stage,” she said.
Girtin’s instructions and assignments are now online, but she said it’s a problem when she has to use her phone to look at the work.
“If I don’t get this thing on my phone correctly without the help that I would get at school. I could lose everything I worked for,” Girtin said.
SAISD released the following statement to KSAT:
“Our strategic plans call for having all schools operate with 1:1 technology, and this crisis is both an opportunity and a challenge to accelerate our plans. We currently have 17,000 devices, and we face a gap of approximately 30,000 devices to completely close the gap. Our goal is to augment our budget with philanthropic sources, including a #ConnectCampaign through the SAISD Foundation, to enable us to purchase the necessary devices. We also are purchasing hotspots so that once our families have devices, they are fully able to access the learning resources we are providing through our academic team. We are moving quickly to complete both of these purchases and to distribute the resources to our families, with the goal of completion in two weeks.”
Girtin’s mother, Janell Rubio, said she has one laptop issued to her from the district, but she is concerned her three children won’t receive the education they need.
“Our worry is are our students still going to be learning at the same pace they were learning at on campus?” Rubio questioned.
Rubio said she hopes life will return to normal in the weeks ahead.
“These kids actually want to be back at school with the rest of their friends,” she said.
COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new virus, stands for coronavirus disease 2019. The disease first appeared in late 2019 in Wuhan, China, but spread around the world in early 2020, causing the World Health Organization to declare a pandemic in March.
MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE FROM KSAT: