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It’s been a year since New York City students experienced a normal day of school. As the pandemic abruptly turned life upside down around the world, roughly a million public school kids in NYC were thrust into a wildly inconsistent learning environment, with repeated openings and closings of school buildings and systemwide shifts to online learning as COVID-19 rates surge. The uncertainty amidst the pandemic has caused widespread reports of stress, anxiety and intense mental anguish among students -- with no definitive end in sight.
One second grader anxiously asks her mom every morning if she’s gotten a call from school about another case that shuts down the building. A teenager who enjoys remote learning has lost crucial engagement and socialization skills, preferring to tackle assignments alone in his bedroom and avoiding group projects. Another student said he has stopped commuting to Brooklyn Tech’s campus because his parents are worried about the rise in anti-Asian bias crimes and prefer to keep him home.