BY GABRIELLE KROEGER

OGDENSBURG -- The COVID-19 restrictions put in place in high schools have just recently been lifted, allowing students to finish out the year normally, although students are still feeling the effects.

Starting March 21, Ogdensburg Free Academy no longer had any restrictions and all events were open to the public with spectators choosing if they want to wear a mask.

“We continue to open up our district to the events we weren’t able to hold,” said Superintendent Kevin Kendall. They have been slowly loosening up restrictions from the start of the pandemic to now.

In 2020, when the pandemic initially shut everything down, OFA held their graduation ceremony outdoors, following social distancing guidelines. They were able to hold a traditional graduation ceremony last year, and they will do so this year as well.

The coronavirus pandemic affected students in various ways over the past two years. The change to remote learning was jarring and some students struggled.

“COVID has made me not want to go to school because of all the rules and restrictions,” Mallory Morley, a senior at OFA, said.

Learning remotely made it harder to focus on school, and it became more about just getting through the classes, rather than actually passing them, Morley said.

“I think students lost a significant amount of quality and structured education while being taught remotely,” Renee Grizzuto, a member of the school board, said.

Although students were struggling with online learning, regents’ exams weren’t given because of the pandemic.

“I believe the graduation rates have probably increased over the last couple of years because Regents’ exams were eliminated,” Kendall said.

With not having to worry about their Regents’ grades, students were free to just focus on passing their class.

“Not having regents helped me because it wasn’t very stressful through school. It was just like I had nothing to worry about,” Morley said.

Many students started to feel very alone during the quarantine, which led to a negative impact on their mental health.

“I think staying at home and keeping all your thoughts to yourself, especially being, like, really an only child, I kind of lost my communication with my friends,” Morley said.

“I think being taught remotely, social distancing and quarantining lead to feelings of isolation, loneliness and depression,” Grizzuto said.

The pandemic also influenced some student’s plans after high school. The pandemic had a very negative impact on certain job types, which lead to Morley changing her career goals.

“I didn’t want to major in something that could get shut down because of COVID,” Morley said. She wants to be able to provide for herself in case something like this ever happens again.

Once students were able to go back to school, there were still many restrictions in place for certain events, such as sports. Certain sporting events only allowed two spectators per athlete at each event.

“As a step-parent to a child whose dad is obviously still in her life, you know, I wasn’t able to see my step-daughter participate in track and field because her mom and dad were able to go,” Kendall said.

Finally being able to be able to participate in these events had a very positive effect on students, even with the restrictions.

“For some students participating in extracurricular activities is a huge motivator factor to maintain a passing grade point average,” Grizzuto said.

Some schools and colleges have switched snow days to fully remote days, which has left students very unhappy. Kendall said he wanted to keep the joy of waking up and seeing that you don’t have to go to school that day.

“We felt as though it puts a burden on parents to make sure that the child is logging in, that the child’s doing the work. It would have created more stress for the parents,” Kendall said.

One of the final restrictions to be lifted was the mask mandate, but as soon as the state said it could be lifted, OFA no longer required masks.

“The students are now attending school in person, no contact tracing, maskless and no social distancing,” Grizzuto said. “However, a student/staff member may choose to wear a mask and/or practice social distancing.”

Students and staff are much happier now that the mask mandate is lifted, and school is back to normal.

“I know it seems small but walking into a pre-kindergarten class with a bunch of 4 and 5- year-olds and seeing them smile and enjoy school again, it kind of warms your heart,” Kendall said.

Gabrielle Kroeger is a graduate of Lisbon Central School and a journalism student at SUNY Oswego.