By Maddie Ball

In Richmond, Virginia restaurants have stopped seating people and stores have closed, as well as other small businesses. The restaurants that are still open are only available for takeout, and the only stores that are open are grocery stores, Walmart, Target, pharmacies, and other essential businesses. The coronavirus has made a large impact in Richmond as well as the United States as a whole, but other countries have different ways of dealing with COVID-19. Universities and high schools have also recently shut down, but Collegiate School has transitioned to remote classes with online assessments and assignments. 

France, along with most of the rest of the world, is also on lockdown. Lilou Charron, a student at our partner school in the Loire Valley, Saint-Denis International School, says that students at her school have been doing online school as of March 23, the same day we started classes. Charron shares that France officially decided to shut down schools on March 13.  Everything in their town of Loches and in the Loire Valley, except for drug stores, supermarkets, “Boucherie” (butcher shops), “Bar Tabac,” and “boulangerie” (bakeries), is closed. 

Charron said that “at first no one really thought much of the virus, and people were excited that schools were closing.” However, once all stores and schools closed, the people of Loches realized that the coronavirus was a more serious matter. She says there are policemen all over the streets keeping watch, and that if people want to go somewhere they need to print an authorization form. Roxane Boulanger-Haas, another student at Saint-Denis, says that they have been in full quarantine for over ten days. She says that there are very few shops that have remained open. She also said that online school is not easy; it is actually harder. They are doing lessons online and homework that is graded. These grades are averaged and called “Confinement,” which contribute to their final grades. 

Italy’s death count from COVD-19 was the highest in the world as of March 30, although that number has since been surpassed by the United States over the last few weeks. The government in Italy has taken many drastic actions to try and get their rates of infection lower. They have slowed industrial production all over Italy. Many businesses have shut down, and the businesses that remain open are not producing as many goods as they were before COVID-19 hit Italy. The people of Italy continue to follow the rules of social distancing. The government has stopped international travel and banned outdoor sports because people were abusing their freedom by getting too close to others, or using this privilege as an excuse to continue hanging out with friends. They also closed all shops except for those with necessities. Although Italy’s numbers have begun to go down, the precautionary measures that were due to expire on April 3 have been extended. 

Euronews reported on how Italy has transitioned since the schools in Italy have shut down due to COVID-19. The article talks about how some schools are not prepared to do online education, but other schools have been using Google Hangout to continue hosting lessons online. This is similar to how Richmond-area schools are approaching online school. While independent schools in Richmond such as Collegiate, Trinity, and St. Christopher’s have continued learning online, public schools, such as Midlothian High School in Chesterfield County, do not all have the resources to start e-learning. 

Schools in the Richmond area have also taken precautionary measures by shutting down, but each school is adapting in their own ways. Collegiate School has started online classes through Zoom and Schoology, still assigning homework, tests, quizzes, and papers. Eliza Adamik, my step-sister and a sophomore at Midlothian High, has been assigned optional work for enrichment. However, students in Chesterfield will not be doing online classes, because not everyone in the county has easy access to wifi or a computer. Chesterfield County Public Schools have also decided that taking the AP exam is optional, but students will still get to keep the AP credit on their transcript. 

Trinity Episcopal School, another independent school in Richmond, has been conducting online classes similarly to Collegiate. Trinity senior Jackson Hanback says that they have three classes a day and morning meetings Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 8:30 a.m. Their classes start at 9:00 a.m., and each class lasts 60-90 minutes. Hanback also says that he is getting assigned more work than he was before online classes started.

St. Catherine’s School has also started online classes. St. Catherine’s junior Harlie Hawkins says that she has two to three classes on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. She only has one class on Wednesdays. Hawkins also said that she believes St. Catherine’s has been assigning more work than before classes transitioned to the online platform. She states that she is getting “four to six hours of homework each night,” but adds that the administration at St. Catherine’s has told students that they should only be getting around four to six hours of homework each week. 

Featured image courtesy of english.briefnews.in.