BOZEMAN — At Morning Star Elementary one fifth grade student found a special way to help out her peers during the COVID-19 shutdown.
“I knew that kids needed support during this time and I knew that they might want to get it from people their age," said fifth grader Francie LaFoley.
When it comes to how children are impacted by COVID-19, such as missing friends or being stressed out by school, people often overlook the toll it takes on them. LaFoley, a student in Missey Dore’s fifth grade class at Morning Star Elementary, wanted to give them an outlet.
“At first (Francie) called it an advice column and she wanted to give the fifth graders some ideas and help with the whole situation," said Dore. "She could feel the sadness about missing friends and missing school. She wanted to help her classmates.”
LaFoley started a letter to the editor kind of column for her classmates to express their feelings.
“People write to us and it’s anonymous, so we don’t know who is writing to us," LaFoley said. "They’ll ask questions like I’m bored and I need stuff to do and we will give them ideas.
In the column, which is called “Confused During COVID” (CDC), a total of six students, a boy and a girl from each fifth grade class help their peers through tougher things, like stress. Whether it be missing friends, or even difficult schoolwork.
“We also give them suggestions for taking deep breaths, or just thinking that everyone’s going through this and everything is going to be okay eventually," said LaFoley.
LaFoley hounded Dore to start this, and it came as no surprise to her teacher that she would want help her fellow students during this unexpected time.
“She’s a quiet leader," said Dore. "She’s not always the one who is raising her hand all the time and getting attention. She gets things done, she’s a great thinker and she’s able to see things from many perspectives. She’s very, very thoughtful.”
The students post on a school utilized webpage so teachers can also see what their anonymous students are going through.
“It’s good for us to read too," Dore said about teachers learning new things about their students through the posts. "(Such as) the workload is too much, the workload is kind of boring, I’m having a hard time getting started on my work, what should I do?”
For LaFoley, the CDC is also something she can use.
If I ever have situations, or something I can look back on my CDC column and think oh, I’m going through that too and I just read the responses that people have written," LaFoley said.
