Landrum Middle School students have dressed out for many years, but this year, things are looking a little bit different. We aren’t dressing out and many people think that they are being less active in P.E.. Many of the students that were interviewed disliked dressing out.
Sixth grader Stella Hammer was one of those students. “Even though this is my first year at Landrum, I like how we aren’t dressing out because we have more time in P.E.,” she said.
When students are required to dress out, it can take up a lot of class time that could have been spent doing activities.
But seventh grader Lilly Russell made a different point. “It’s so hot outside and I can’t change out of my jeans or anything else. I get really sweaty sometimes and I have to go to class like that,” she said.
Some LMS students think that avoiding the locker rooms isn’t helping that much.
“Staying out of the locker rooms isn’t doing anything. If you are wearing your mask correctly there shouldn’t be much of a problem. It shouldn’t cause any new cases or people getting quarantined,” said eighth grader Kate Macko.
But some people think otherwise.
“They are too small. Corona would definitely get spread. It’s just too confined, but I honestly don’t really care,” said seventh grader Jack Berquist.
The locker rooms make it hard for everyone to social distance and COVID could get further spread even with masks.
Seventh grader Amanda Russo thinks the current situations will change very soon.
“I think that by the end of this year, we will go back to dressing out,” she said.
On the other hand, the coronavirus cases could spike again, meaning these changes will not be made until after next year.
“If we start dressing out in P.E. again, I have a feeling that the school cases will rise and more people will get quarantined,” said seventh grader Alexandra Wright.
Getting quarantined means that the student will have to stay at home for two weeks before they return to school. In the meantime, they must attend school virtually in order to not get behind.
A quarantined student Ashley Wright has been doing online school for the past week and was asked her thoughts on doing P.E. from home.
“I like it because I get to hang out at home. I can go on bike rides, the trampoline and have a wide spread of activities to do,” she said.
While having to quarantine has its benefits for P.E., it also has downsides.
“P.E. is a lot more boring because I can’t talk to and hang out with my friends. However, it does leave time for me to catch up on or do my homework early,” said seventh grader Lily Doyle.
Although the opinions on dressing out differed, no one really knows how long it will be until Landrum students start dressing out again. Is dressing out and using the locker room worth being quarantined or even getting COVID? No one knows….