As stories citing the impact of COVID-19 on education continue to be published and aired nationwide, several studies are finding that the pandemic has increased the disparities in our education systems.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n One place where this holds true is Oakland, California. <\/p>\n\n\n\n During both the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years, there were about 35,000 students enrolled in the Oakland Unified School District. Some of it educators are sharing their perspectives on what it has been like for educators and their students over the past 30-plus months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen COVID came, it poked a lot of holes or brought to light the discrepancies in how we educated, who we educated \u2026 the poor quality of education,\u201d Bryan Massengale, Culture Keeper at Destiny Arts Center<\/a>, said. \u201cAll of those issues came through. Everybody slowed down so that those things could be examined.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A 2021 study measuring student success during the pandemic called \u201cChallenging Success: Kids Under Pressure\u201d<\/a>, posed to students the following question: \u201cCompared to the time before the coronavirus impacted your community, to what extent have your experiences in the following areas changed?\u201d <\/em>Challenge Success \u2013 a school reform nonprofit affiliated with the Stanford Graduate School of Education, in conjunction with NBC News \u2013 found 56% of students reported their stress had increased. <\/p>\n\n\n\n During the same year, another study conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported seeing an increase in mental health issues<\/a> among teens during the pandemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Educators in several schools in the East San Francisco Bay Area city say stressors in teens have manifested in different ways. Being distanced from on-site education and their peers \u2013 exasperated by a combination of social media, the increased isolation, lack of development and lack of mental wellness building \u2013 has created a communication divide among students. <\/p>\n\n\n Tatiana Church, a restorative justice educator at Oakland Tech High School, refers to the pandemic school years of 2020 and 2021 as \u201cthe black box period\u201d \u2013 screens of black boxes where students\u2019 faces were absent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI called it \u2018the black box\u2019 because I felt like most students weren\u2019t on camera or didn\u2019t have their cameras on or didn\u2019t even have a picture,\u201d Church said. \u201cIt would be the black box and their name.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elisha Davis, a physical education teacher also at Oakland Tech, explained the connection of social identity with the school was lacking and students were disengaged from activities that typically brought them enjoyment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe level of school spirit \u2013 like when you have rallies, when you have dances, when you have spirit weeks, when you have events \u2013 they\u2019re not as engaged,\u201d said Davis, who teaches incoming freshmen. \u201cThey\u2019re not really thrilled. It feels like walking zombies.\u201d She added it was difficult to teach students who appear to not care or are disengaged. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo it makes it really tough and hard to identify how to help or fulfill a student\u201d who seems to care only about \u201cwhat\u2019s on their phone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Church said another thing she noticed was that returning students also showed increased aggression to staff and one another. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe level of fights and just lack of students being able to interact with each other in person, without it being a conflict or problem, definitely skyrocketed because they just weren\u2019t around each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 108-year-old school district already has experienced several school shootings<\/a>, larger enrollments, sexual assault accusations<\/a> and protests due to district school closures<\/a> since the beginning of the pandemic. This often-added pressure on educators feeling unsafe at their school sites, some even walking off the job. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo there\u2019s a shortage everywhere,\u201d Davis agreed. \u201cFrom teachers to security because staff feel like, \u2018why aren\u2019t we protected?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Masking the problem<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Educators having to reintroduce students into the educational system during an ongoing pandemic proved to be taxing, Church said. In the beginning, mask mandates made it difficult to identify who a student was. \u201cIt was so strange going through the mental envisioning of what you thought people look like.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Davis also found without facial recognition, it was more difficult to make connections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo when you see a kid on campus or outside of your class, you couldn\u2019t talk to that child,\u201d Davis said. \u201cIt was hard to do that and wanting to be six-to-12 feet from somebody \u2026 in addition to not even knowing who it was.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both Oakland Tech teachers said the incoming freshman class had not been on a school campus since the seventh grade, which caused a huge social and emotional jump to go from middle school to high school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPicture a seventh grader: COVID happens. Two years later, you\u2019re back on campus. So, technically our ninth graders are seventh graders,\u201d\u201d Davis explained. The educational mindset of the incoming freshman is that of someone in the seventh grade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Physically absent<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Destiny Arts Center in downtown Oakland saw different challenges than those of Oakland Tech and some of the other district schools, Massengale said. Students at the arts, dance and movement-focused education campus faced more emotional challenges because they were unable to be together physically, which is key to this type of program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maginecreativeservices.com\/shadesmagazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/attachment-1.jpeg?w=720\")