On Thursday, Sep. 17, all Westside schools transitioned from yellow mode to green mode. With yellow mode in place, the high school has been at 50% capacity to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and has now moved to 100% capacity in green mode. Students, staff and parents have a wide range of reactions to this change. Junior Ava Fehr said she is ready to return to school every day of the week because she thinks online school is very stressful and disorganized.

“[Going to class over WebEx] is hard because we lose a lot of time for discussion and most of the time [class is] 100% informational,” Fehr said. “I packed my schedule this year in order to have more space as a senior, and having to manage all of my classes [and their respective WebEx meetings] can be overwhelming.”

Senior Sandra Tombi also said she is excited to return to school at 100% capacity.

“I’m excited to be able to see my friends and favorite teachers again; hands-on learning works a lot better for me [than] struggling to do class over a WebEx [meeting],” Tombi said. “[Going to school every day of the week] is going to make it easier to get help from my teachers.”

Tombi said she wonders how Westside plans to keep students and staff safe during this pandemic at 100% capacity, but feels like the district will be able to maintain green mode for a long time.

“I feel like out of all the schools in Omaha, [Westside High School] will be able to maintain 100% [because] we have a [relatively small] student body [as well as] modular scheduling, which is going to help with [reducing in-school] traffic,” Tombi said. “If [Westside High School] students care strongly about [participating in] school events, then they will find a way to have their events go on in a safe, socially-distanced [manner] that follows [public] health guidelines.”

Tombi’s mother tested positive for COVID-19 in late August and was hospitalized. Tombi said this process and self-quarantining was scary for her family.

“[My mom testing positive for COVID-19] was a really huge wake up call for me and made me realize, just because the virus [hasn’t] directly affected my health, there are millions of people who have been and are currently being affected by it,” Tombi said. “It is my responsibility to be conscious [in protecting] those around me and who are a part of my life.”