Freedom Forum Newsletter December 7, 2020

December 4, 2020

Schools Are Trying to Avoid Covid COVID-Cation Alexis Swoyer, Social Media Editor With COVID-19 cases growing, schools around the state have been shutting down or starting to take breaks within the weeks at school. Some schools in the Lehigh Valley Area have been doing a different type of schedule than the BASD and have been seeing more closings because of it. The BASD is trying to keep students in school for as long as possible without any closings.

The BASD is one of the only districts in the area to not have a COVID closing since the end of August of this year. All parents and students of the district have seen multiple videos from Dr. Roy over the past few months about updates on closings

and the school schedules.

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving break, all students and teachers had zoom meetings throughout the day to have as a test run incase of any type of COVID closing. The test run days had both groups of students combined in their classes for the zoom meetings. They had said that if schools do eventually shut down students would continue the hybrid scheduling on zoom classes.

Some schools around the Lehigh Valley Area have decided to extend their Thanksgiving break a week or two longer and choose to do all online classes to try to decrease the surge of cases after the holiday.

Lehigh Valley Academy has chosen to stay closed with all remote learning until January 4th. With the increases in cases in Northampton County they have chosen to stay closed in between the holidays.

They still have not yet decided how they will continue their learning when they return back to school.

Saucon Valley had taken an extra week off from their Thanksgiving break, to avoid any type of exposure to the virus throughout the school. Schools around the country and state are trying their best to stay open so students can get as close to normality as possible. It is also hard for students to

be focused while being completely online.

Hopefully after the holidays all schools will be open and running without having to worry about closing again.

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December 4, 2020

The Worst Year Ever is Slowly Ending The Season of COVID spreading Alexis Swoyer, Social Media Editor Tis the season of well..

COVID. The holidays have started up in full bloom after Thanksgiving had come along this past week. It doesn’t really seem like the happy holidays people are used to this year. Families are being separated and holiday shopping has become even more of a hassle. Thanksgiving was different for everyone, not being able to see family members, or not being able to travel around for the holidays. Many missed out on some of the experiences they usually get to have every year. Black Friday was

even more of a strange experience this year due to COVID-19 regulations and also some people just don’t want to go out and shop during the pandemic. With stores already limiting the amount of customers in the store along with social distancing, the lines seemed even longer than any other year we’ve seen. But that still hasn’t stopped many from going into malls and doing their holiday shopping. Lines in the Lehigh Valley Mall were wrapped around corners and filled with as many people as the regulations could allow them.

“It was definitely a weird experience for me, it was only my second time going shopping on Black Friday, and having to walk around in a mask and waiting in super long lines waiting for people in the store wasn’t great but the deals they were having were.” said Savannah Henkel from Parkland High School.

Christmas this year seems to be the biggest worry for families across the country.

Christmas is a big holiday for families and it becomes a burden when people can’t see the family members they wait all year to see.

Giving gifts, making cookies, decorating the tree, and spending time with family and friends will all be changed this year.

The last major holiday coming up this season is New Years. No more parties, or any type of social gatherings, and what will happen with the ball drop in NYC? At this point everyone is feeling like they are ready for, what felt like, the longest year ever, to be officially over.

A Taste of Nostalgia for Our Generation Now Or Never is the Time to Watch...

Alexis Swoyer, Social Media Editor I was a little late to the trend of watching the Netflix show Julie and The Phantoms, the show premiered its first nine episodes on September 10 of this year, which are only available on Netflix. I was seeing a bunch of teenagers posting about the show on Tik Tok but never thought I was going to enjoy it. When I watched the first episode it already gave me the nostalgic feeling of our old tv shows we used to watch as kids, and shortly after I became obsessed. The main characters of the show are Julie, Luke, Reggie, and

Alex, with some side characters like Flynn, Carrie, and Nick, Julie’s father, aunt and younger brother, that are more seen than some of the other background characters.

The show is about a girl who had lost her mom at a young age and hasn´t been able to play music since it was something her mom was amazing at and taught her.

She meets a ghost boy band that we see in the very beginning of the show that becomes a big part of her life. The boys were in an accident the night of playing a gig and came

back as ghosts when Julie played a CD of them that was in her moms studio.

They hint throughout the show that the band has a connection to her mother but they never actually reveal that is the truth. The cool thing about the storyline of the show is that Julie is the only one who is able to see the ghost boys at all times. Others are only able to see them when they are singing live with Julie.

She has to tell people the boys are holograms that she plays when they are performing and they

live in a foreign country.

Towards the middle of the show one of their old bandmates who did not die in the accident sees a video of the boys playing and starts to question how they had come back ¨to life¨. The show has not yet been renewed for a second season but fans are sure that they will be renewing it soon. The hits from the show are definitely making it seem like it will be coming back soon for . Due to Covid we won’t know when we will see the band perform again.