By: Saron Amdemeskel#

May 13, 2021#

A while back the CDC changed the school social distancing guidelines from 6 feet to 3. Now, it is being used in all FCPS schools. 

Many students, both in-person and virtual, had many thoughts on this change. A survey was sent out to see what people’s thoughts and opinions were. According to that survey, some people were all for it, some people were a bit hesitant, and some people were overall neutral.

Here are some opinions of Glasgow students:

• “I trust the CDC to make the best decisions during this pandemic, and maybe 3 feet will still be enough for everyone’s safety, but that seems really close to me. I think this will give kids the idea that since everything is slowly returning to normal and they can be closer to each other, it’s ok to go back to doing normal things. Overall, I just think 6 feet would be the safer option here. I don’t think now is the time to change anything.”  -Virtual 8th grader, Rewan Farag
• “I’m overall neutral about the whole thing if the CDC has very strong evidence that supports that standing 3 feet is safe rather than standing 6 feet than yeah sure I’ll go with that but I feel the farther we are from each other the better even though it may be harder to communicate better safe than sorry.”  -Virtual 7th grader, Rosneyda Ortiz-Chavez
• “I think jumping from AT LEAST 6 feet away to 3 feet away is a big step, but I fully believe the people behind the CDC studied and researched and only want the safest for others. If the CDC says 3 feet is safe, then I’m in!”  -In-person 7th grader, Katarina Sochurek
• “I think that changing the guidelines from 6 to 3 feet will still keep us safe because we will still have our masks on, so the risk of spreading germs through speaking or breathing is already lowered. This change will also help more students get back in the building and help everyone back into normal routines and prepare for when all of us will have to go back.”  -In-person 7th grader, Ayesha Gulzar
• “Even though most people got a vaccine some people haven’t, so we should stay 6 feet apart and even if people got the vaccine, they aren’t immune to COVID-19.”  -Virtual 6th grader, Rebecca Felix
• “I think that it may be too soon to change the guidelines. People are still getting their vaccines so until the majority of people get them no one can guarantee safety. When keeping far away it gives you a sense that you need to act safe, if people change that then people might become more careless which will just increase the amount of cases.”  -Virtual 7th grader, Diana Prudius

In the same survey that was sent out to people, 51.7% of students that answered said they think that changing the school social distancing guidelines wouldn’t keep people safe. 48.3% said that they think it would still keep people safe. When asked if they agree with changing the social distancing guidelines from 6 feet to 3, 53,9% said they didn’t and 46.1% said they did. It’s clear that the students have many different opinions on the matter, but what do you think? Do you think that changing the social distancing guidelines will still keep people safe?