QUEEN CREEK, Ariz — After the first day of school at Queen Creek High School, a student is having second thoughts and opting to go online.
Students at the Queen Creek Unified School District returned to the classroom in droves Monday, excited for the opportunity to go back to the classroom.
But Kinnosha Charlize says what she experienced at Queen Creek High School left her scared to return.
“I felt like I had been exposed,” says Charlize.
She says some teachers didn’t take the mask enforcement seriously.
“Students were running around the class with no mask on,” says Charlize.
Now she is opting out of the classroom, and going back to the online option.
The district requires masks, with exemptions, and has sanitation and social distancing guidelines in place. Although the high school doesn’t have class size limits, it has cut passing periods in half, and reduced lunchtime sizes, among other procedures.
Julie Oster, the Queen Creek High School principal, told us the first day went smoothly.
“We’re making sure everyone’s wearing masks, we have precautions in place, protocols in place to help mitigate the spread, everyone feels very safe,” said Oster Monday.
But Oster also told us there would be challenges.
"We told our families from the very beginning. Socially distancing in the classroom is impossible. We’re going to try to limit the amount of contact our students have in the classroom."
“I knew there was going to be some sacrifice between home and school but at the end of the day it wasn’t worth actually going to school,” says Charlize.
In response to Charlize’s allegations, the district says, “ We have had zero reports of teachers not enforcing our mitigation plan. In fact, we have received is the exact opposite of this, parents have reached out to the district saying how well students and staff did with implementing our mitigation measures.”
The district adds that 14% of students are learning online.
