On March 14, 2020, the governor of Mississippi, Tate Reeves, declared a state of emergency. Following his declaration, he also declared on March 19, 2020, that Mississippi schools would be closed until April 17, 2020.
“This is not a decision that I take lightly. In fact, in my nearly 17 years of serving the public, it is perhaps the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make. I made this decision because I believe it’s in the best interest of all of our fellow Mississippians. I know our teachers and our administrators will step up during these challenging times .” Said Reeves when he made the announcement.
A week later on March 29 Donald Trump, the president of the United States, announced that he is extending the national shut down for a month due to the rising sickness and deaths from the coronavirus. This means for the next month we will be in quarantine. The federal guidelines recommend that citizens practice social distancing, and avoid large social gatherings.
With all this going on I have to wonder how does the youth feel? Many high schoolers are at the possibility of missing out on sentimental milestones in their life such as graduation and prom. I wanted to hear the youth opinion on the coronavirus, so I decided to ask my peers, Kristian Byrant and Montrell Fleming, some questions.
Kristian Byrant and Montrell Fleming are both high school juniors that attend Terry High School located in Terry, Mississippi.
Are you afraid?
Kristian Byrant: Not really. It’s not something I should be afraid of. I’m covered by the blood of Jesus.
Montrell Fleming: Not really. I’m just chilling at this point.
Are you staying in quarantine?
Kristian Byrant: For me yes and no. You got to go to places. The world just doesn’t stop automatically because of a virus. Also when you are apart of a big family there is no quarantine.
Montrell Fleming: No, I should be though. I went to a whole cookout. I got to live my life.
Are you disappointed that school is out?
Kristian Bryant: I’m disappointed that prom is canceled.
Montrell Fleming: No. I’m happy, but I would choose school over quarantine.
How would you feel if the Mississippi Department of Education were to extend school?
Kristian Byrant: I will be upset.
Montrell Fleming: I’ll be mad because why should we suffer? This isn’t our fault. I feel like if we had to go to school during the summer my grades would drop.
How do you feel about online classes?
Kristian Byrant: I hate it. Something you can’t learn off the computer. For instance, I’m taking Spanish and I’m the type of person who learns better in person.
Montrell Fleming: I don’t feel like doing it. There is already too much going on and it’s just adding stress on students.
Do you feel like this is the end of the world?
Kristian Byrant: Yes, it’s so many natural disasters going around. This is just a series of bad events.
Montrell Fleming: No, I personally feel that people are doing too much. I believe that we should worry about it but not too much.
Kristian Byrant: I pray that this is over soon, so we can go back to normalcy. Also, people saying that we young and we shouldn’t worry about it. Which is a shame because it’s teaching people to don’t worry about stuff unless it directly affects them.
Was something canceled that you were looking forward to due to the coronavirus?
Kristian Byrant: Yes, going to prom.
Montrell Fleming: Yes, getting my license. Hopefully, I can still get it.
Should the youth be taking this more seriously?
Kristian Byrant: Yes, we should all just stay in the house, so hopefully we can go outside.
Montrell Fleming: Yes, even though I’m one of the people who aren’t. For now on I’m going to try to stay at home.
Do you feel safe with Trump’s response to handling the outbreak of the coronavirus?
Kristian Byrant: Negative. It’s like he could care less about what happens to the people. He claims to be taken it serious but he isn’t. If he did more, people would working with compensation.
Montrell Fleming: I don’t know. I haven’t been listening to the news or paying attention.
As of March 28, 2020, there are 758 cases and 14 deaths reported in Mississippi. Do you know anyone affected by the coronavirus?
Kristian Byrant: No.
Montrell Fleming: No.
How do you feel about the curfew imposed by the mayor? Is it effective?
Montrell Fleming: Yes, people are actually listening to that. When ten rolls around, everybody is in their homes.
Kristian Byrant: I feel like it encourages people to go out more. When somebody tells you not to do something it makes you want to do it more.
Montrell Fleming: Yeah, I know that’s how I am. When someone tells me not to do something, I’m going to do it.
Thank you, Stephyne. This is actually a pretty cool idea for a blog. I have been wondering how others are handling this situation, and this interview is interesting. I can understand a lot of points in this. Online work is kind of adding stress to a stressful situation, and I can only imagine learning Spanish on the computer at this time…
I think you asked the right questions, and I am glad you decided to make this your blog idea. Now I am considering interviewing people because it is interesting to hear the thoughts of others. Everyone is reacting differently. Thank you for being awesome, and I appreciated reading this. (: