“When everyone was online, there was a schedule, there was teachers.” But when other students returned to school, Mica remained online, stuck with a heavy course load, overlapping homework and little structure or oversight. “It was like they left the kids that stayed online behind and just left them to do their own thing,” Emory says.
Ellet Community Learning Center, where Mica is currently attending classes in-person.
For students, COVID-19 is the new normal. Meet two young people facing big pandemic challenges in the new academic year BY H.L. COMERIATO, TDS STAFF REPORTER Over the last 18 months, COVID-19 has shaped the way young people experience the world. Students, in particular, have faced immense uncertainty as adults across the country made important decisions about their health, safety, education and futures. For most, the return to in-person learning is a chance for social and emotional connection. But for students living with disabilities or compromised immune systems, the academic year comes with a frightening dilemma: risk serious, perhaps fatal, illness or miss out and fall behind. For Mica, a sophomore at Ellet Community Learning Center, readjusting to in-person learning has been complicated. At 16 months old, Mica was identified as deaf. Now a teenager, they use a combination of speech, signing, lip reading and hearing devices to communicate with their teachers and peers. Within Akron Public Schools, most classes and resources for deaf students are located in the Ellet cluster, which means Mica has access to an interpreter for every class. Nearly a decade ago, the night before they were set to begin first grade at Ritzman Community Learning Center,
Mica’s parent, Emory, drove them to the emergency room at Akron Children’s Hospital. From the time they were born, Mica experienced frequent illnesses and infections. When they began vomiting and developed a severe headache, Emory knew something was wrong. After more than six hours, Mica was admitted to the hospital. As their room filled with frantic staff, someone approached Emory: “They said, ‘We don’t know what’s going on right now, but we’re almost 100% sure your kid has cancer.’” Young people make big sacrifices After that, everything about Mica’s life changed. While their classmates spent the first weeks of school making new friends, Mica remained in the hospital for more than a month. By the following year, they had become so immunocompromised that Emory cancelled their enrollment in hopes that homeschooling might help keep them safe and healthy. In seventh grade, Mica began attending classes in person again. They completed eighth grade in person, but COVID-19 kept them learning virtually for the entire duration of their freshman year. “At first, it was fun,” Mica says.
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“There weren’t places you could go to get help,” Mica adds. “I struggled with that. How do you get the help if you don’t know what question to ask — and if you don’t know what’s being asked of you?” Now in the tenth grade, Mica relies on medications and frequent blood transfusions to maintain a safe white blood cell count. Today, they are both healthy enough to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and to attend classes in person. As Mica’s sophomore year approached, they began weighing their options. Akron Public Schools announced a mask requirement on July 27, but Emory says Mica had to decide between attending virtual or inperson classes before the requirement was announced. And even with a universal mask mandate, Mica and Emory are nervous for the year to come.
Kenny wore a face covering, too, as did the doctors and nurses who cared for him. When Matthews found out she was pregnant with her second child in February 2020, she knew she’d name the baby Kenneth, in honor of his uncle and grandfathers. One month later, Kaylan was sent home from school to finish third grade virtually. Now a fifth grader in the Cuyahoga Falls City School District, Kaylan spent the entire duration of her fourth grade school year learning online. Kaylan says she supports mask mandates in schools because they help protect people like her late late uncle, who rely on the cooperation of others to stay healthy. “I made it a big deal that she was sacrificing a part of her youth, her childhood, her fourth grade year, for the greater good,” Matthews says. “I’m so proud of her.” “A lot of times, she would reference that I was pregnant,” Matthews adds. “When the baby came, she’d say she was doing the right thing for her brother. She has asthma, so she’s doing the right thing for her. I have autoimmune diseases, so she’s doing the right thing for me.” For Kaylan, who is still too young to be vaccinated, the decision to wear a mask is a simple one. Overall, she says she’s disappointed by adults’ reluctance to follow CDC masking guidelines.
‘Doing the right thing’ “It’s just like, you’d think that adults On May 13, 1998 — just three months shy of his tenth birthday — Kenneth Matthews, Jr., died of cancer.
Kenyona Sunny Matthews embraces her oldest child, Kaylan Park.
His sister, Kenyona Sunny Matthews, grew older without him. She graduated high school and moved on to college. She built a life and a career. She had children of her own. Matthews’s oldest, Kaylan Park, knows her late uncle from pictures and stories — his wide smile and bright eyes the draw of every family photo. When Matthews’s brother became ill, she and her family wore masks to help protect him from infections.
October 2021 · Vol 9 · Issue #10
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