Students returning to school for second semester arrived with shock upon finding out that the beloved weekly Wellness Wednesdays would be turning into monthly not-Wednesdays. In other words, Wake County eliminated Wellness Wednesdays in favor of sporadic “Remote Learning Days,” slated to happen once or twice a month rather than every week in order to increase student instructional time. High schoolers, understandably, voiced their dismay to teachers and social media.
Students love their breaks from school, so it came as no surprise that when Apex Friendship and several other Wake County schools began to institute a middle-of-the-week day off, students rejoiced. School administrators created the first-semester weekly break, affectionately dubbed “Wellness Wednesdays”. These days gave teachers planning time and students an extra day to catch up on work, which for many, piles up quickly with online learning.
Vanessa Dixon, an Apex Friendship junior, took the extra step of creating a petition on change.org, a popular site that allows its users to create petitions on anything from federal laws to local issues. Dixon created her petition, titled simply “Wellness Wednesdays” and directed to the Wake County Board of Education, with the aim of asking the county to bring back the weekly days off, as well as to show the importance of the day away from on-screen learning. The petition, whose description reads, “Wellness Wednesdays gave everyone an escape from our online-converted lives, letting us be able to breathe,” reached a staggering 1000 signatures in 24 hours. It has since acquired many more.
“My friends and I were complaining about how we didn’t have our Wednesdays off anymore, and how it was really helpful when we did have them so that we had a break and time to do more work,” Dixon said, when asked about how she had the idea to start the petition. It “was a group consensus” to start the petition, Dixon added, citing how many of her friends had been helpful in spreading the word on social media. Amanda Cordell, Apprecia Lassiter, Michelle Nyakairu, Sierra Focazio, Arya Surabhi, and Layla Aker all contributed.
When the petition started gaining traction, Dixon felt excitement. She read through all the comments that other teens—kids from Apex Friendship and other schools alike—had started to leave on the site, voicing their support. “Everyone said that Wellness Wednesdays gave them time to decompress from school, catch up on work, or even just get some much needed sleep,” said Dixon. “There’s so much going on in the world and everyone’s situation is different so it’s hard to keep up with everything and do your best in a distracting or uncomfortable environment. A lot of [students] also mentioned the mental pressure school and quarantine have been having on us all and how it’s all just so overwhelming when all you can do is stare at a screen.”
When asked about her thoughts, Layla A. of Apex, another student who signed the petition, commented, “Wellness Wednesday helped me catch up on my homework while also being able to get some proper sleep. Now that the schedule has changed and wellness Wednesday has been removed, me and many other students feel extreme stress and pressure,”
Despite the petition’s popularity, Dixon said she had not yet received a direct response from the county. The Apex Friendship administration also did not immediately respond for comment on the petition, but WCPSS recently sent parents an update about asynchronous days, which reads: “The Asynchronous Learning Day schedule remains the same. We are reviewing feedback from staff and the community on this topic. We will share updates as they become available." Meanwhile, much of the AFHS student community continues to hope for the reinstatement of their beloved Wellness Wednesdays.
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