Community/School News
School Sports vs. COVID-19 By: Victoria Ernst
One of the most drastic changes to extracurricular activities due to the coronavirus was the lack of school sports. Although school sports were unable to take place in New York this fall, students have been able to participate in modified athletic activities this spring. In Fall 2020 Governor Cuomo announced that any form of interscholastic athletic competition would contribute to the rising number of coronavirus cases. He stated that all sports must be held off until 2021. Despite this unfortunate circumstance, the Garden City High School was able to hold pre-season practices, which revolved around the hybrid schedule and allowed for sports of all seasons to be practiced at different times each week. The NYSPHSAA, which
guides all high school sporting events within NY, divided each sport into three categories: low risk, moderate risk, and high risk. Cuomo approved the beginning of low risk winter sports, including track and field, boys swimming, fencing, bowling, gymnastics, and rifle, on January 4th. These sports may have some competition between other schools; however, there is no championship season, which consists of Conference, County, and State-wide competition. Unprecedented frigid temperatures and lack of indoor training facilities made training difficult. At the end of January, Cuomo announced that all sports may continue, if local regulations allow such activities to occur. Despite the delayed start, every sport will have a condensed season. Moderate and high risk winter
sports competed until March 1, when the fall season began. On April 22, the spring season is expected to begin. At the moment, the timeline for championship seasons is still unannounced. At the moment, only students who are in school every day at GCHS are permitted to attend practice. However, senior athletes who have decided to continue to follow the hybrid schedule rather than attend daily in-person instruction may attend practice every day. Although many athletes are still disappointed with these changes to their seasons, the athletic department at the High School and the Middle School are dedicating their time and doing everything within their power to getting them back on the field.
Midterm Updates By: Kate Gambino
Usually, midterms are 8% of students’ averages, but on January 8th, the school announced that we would not be having traditional midterms and there would be no days dedicated to administering exams. Also, there will not be a seperate midterm grade on report
cards, so the average of each of the four quarters will have a bigger impact on our final grades. As for the New York State Regents Examinations in June, there is still not a definitive answer whether they will still occur. Once the school is given an answer on the Re-
gents they will let the students know, and explain how final grades for transcripts will be registered. We should all continue to stay focused on the curriculum we are learning, despite the cancellation of midterms and the uncertainty of the Regents exams!
The Life of a Zoom Student By: Emma Harty
Many families, including mine, have decided to go fully remote during these last few months. It isn’t exactly the same as last year’s quarantine or as fun as everyone might think. Having been fully remote now for three months, I can honestly say it has been like riding a rollercoaster. My teachers try to find ways for remote students to be included in the activities but there is no way we can look through a mi-
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croscope on Zoom and see what mitotic cells look like, or even participate without shouting over someone in class. These are just the basic struggles that have built a wall around those of us that are fully remote. When I talk to my friends who live in Brooklyn, they are dealing with the same things we all are and I have to remind myself that being in Garden City is a great place to be during this pandemic. In the city
everyone on the sidewalk is wearing masks at all times, the streets are often crowded and it is hard to stay apart from other people. I am sure we are going to have a lot of new students next year because everyone is rethinking living in the city. The good news is that we’ve hit our one year anniversary of surviving COVID-19 on March 13 and I don’t know about anyone else but I celebrated with a cake!
