The Archdiocese of Philadelphia is failing our teenagers with hybrid education | Opinion

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia is failing our teenagers. Catholic high school students are suffering profoundly because of continued hybrid education. Rather than being in school five days per week as they should be, our teenagers are watching their public school and private Catholic school peers return to consistent, in-person instruction, while they bounce back and forth between home and school under a burdensome blend of online and face-to-face instruction.

If the archdiocesan schools are like others doing hybrid education around the country, the results are catastrophic. In Lynchburg, Va., academic performance is dropping precipitously, and mental health issues are skyrocketing. According to the Foundation for Economic Education, rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation have climbed to levels previously unknown in this generation. Just last week the CDC released a study examining increased risk to the mental health and well-being of students learning in hybrid or completely virtual settings as opposed to students who learn consistently in person. The findings were conclusive: both hybrid and entirely virtual instruction “present more risks than does in-person instruction related to child mental and emotional health and some health-supporting behaviors … For 11 of 17 stress and well-being indicators concerning child mental health and physical activity, findings were worse for children receiving virtual or combined instruction than were those for children receiving in-person instruction.”

» READ MORE: More kids will be eligible to return to Philly schools in late April, district says

The truth is that it doesn’t need to be this way. We send our kids to archdiocesan schools because we believe that a Catholic education forms the whole person in a unique manner, caring for mind, body, and soul together. But in the face of overwhelming student decline, and growing concern from frustrated parents, the archdiocese is unmoved. Even though it is clear that it is safe for high school students to be back in the classroom daily, and pediatric scientists have declared that “keeping schools closed or even partially closed, based on what we know now is unwarranted, is harming children, and has become a human rights issue,” AOP high schools continue in a hybrid model. Their official position, as stated in a form letter response, claims, “Conditions do not currently warrant a change from our hybrid model.”

This assertion flies in the face of overwhelming support for daily, in-person instruction. In January the American Academy of Pediatrics stated, “The AAP strongly advocates that all policy considerations for school COVID-19 plans should start with a goal of having students physically present in school … the AAP strongly advocates for in-person learning.” The president of the AAP further elaborated, “Children absolutely need to return to in-school learning for their healthy development and well-being.” And last week the CDC revised its guidance for student distancing and reiterated in their guiding principles that, “Opening schools for in-person learning as safely and quickly as possible, and keeping them open, is important given the many known and established benefits of in-person learning.”

Just last fall, archdiocesan administrators showed great leadership by maintaining a schedule of hybrid learning for high schoolers and full five-day, in-person instruction for elementary students despite extensive external pressure to teach completely virtually. But today, that position of leadership has been surrendered. Cowardice and intransigence have replaced courage and thoughtful management. It is beyond time for the archdiocese to reopen our Catholic high schools for five days a week, in-person learning.

» READ MORE: Working parents sweep up the broken pieces of a pandemic year as kids return to school full time | Maria Panaritis

Sadly, it is clear that the archdiocese is not making decisions based on science or a recognition of the increasing distress of our teenagers, and so I would remind them of their own words in their current contract with the teachers’ union: “Change must be future-focused, flexible, collaborative and creative.” It is time for the archdiocese to change its policy of hybrid instruction with a future-focus on the health and well-being of our teenagers. As it said itself last fall, the in-person instruction model has “a greater impact … as it allows time for students to develop spiritually, socially, emotionally, physically, and academically.” This is true for all Catholic students, high schoolers included. Get our teenagers back in school five days a week. They have suffered long enough.

Ashley Garecht lives in Montgomery County and has four children, including a junior and a rising freshman at Cardinal O’Hara High School.