Freshmen Unmasked

Timberline High School’s Student Run Publication

Freshmen Unmasked

A look into post-COVID interactions between Freshmen

Written by Staff Writer Max Wright

More than half of Timberline’s student body has never known

a high school career without the shadow of the 2020 COVID Lockdown.

The class of 2023 had only a semester of their high school career

before online learning became the norm. The Covid-19 lockdown has

undoubtedly shaped the entire student body’s view on school work

and socialization.

But unlike the classes of ‘23, ‘24 and ‘25 The freshman class of

2026 had the majority of their middle school experience restricted by

safety precautions and online courses only to emerge from the chaos

in a new stage of their life, the beginning of their high school career

at Timberline; without the strict in-person regulations of the 2021-22

school year.

It’s no secret that online learning was not easy, many students

as well as teachers expressed difficulty maintaining motivation and

progress throughout the year in such an unstructured environment.

Erin Feltman, Timberline’s French Teacher, explained that her biggest

challenge teaching online was “Getting used to Google Meet and not

knowing if my students were there paying attention.”

In 2020 after the implementation of online learning into the

2020- 2021 school year attendance dropped three percent to only

eighty eight percent of students attending school regularly, according

to the state office of superintendent of public instruction. But many

teachers and students know that a number of those students “in atten-

dance” during that school year were not behind that blank screen.

Many students expressed difficulty keeping up with online

learning. Max Daves, a freshman at Timberline, said that his biggest

challenge keeping up with it all was simply the fact that “Sometimes

stuff just didn’t work, and it just wasn’t fair to some kids,”. Many

students didn’t have access to a stable internet connection and many

more did not have access to a sustainable work environment. This

undoubtedly was behind the issues in attendance we saw in the 2020-

2021 school year.

From the 2018-19 school year to the 2019-2020 school year

an increasing number of incoming freshmen are on track, passing their

courses. However in the 2020-21 school year the number of those

students fell drastically behind from 84 percent on track to graduate to

64.5 percent according to OSPI.

But lockdown didn’t just take away students’ valuable class

time and structure; it also took away many of the social events and

experiences that shape someone’s middle school career. “I feel like I

missed out on a bunch of social stuff, meeting new people and that

was all because of quarantine,” Said Tyler Premo, a freshman here

at Timberline. Forming what most students feel is a clear distinction

between the underclassmen who had primarily middle school affect-

ed by covid and the upperclassmen who felt the most affects on their

High School career

Although this is not true for all parties, Both Feltman and

History Teacher Renee Kilcup have noticed that this student grati-

tude may not last much longer, When asked if she believed Timber-

line would ever get back to a Pre-lockdown state Kilcup said, “Yes, In

fact all i think all it takes is to set the standards as such”

Now, without three years of monthly Act Nights (Social

gatherings sponsored by the district for middle school students),

after school clubs, and even the experience of a chaotic lunch-

room many freshmen are now excited to throw themselves into the

Timberline social scene. All Timberline can hope now is that future

classes continue on the class of 2026’s trend of gratitude to explore

the culture of Timberline without the hindrance of social distancing/

safety guidelines.

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