Editor’s Note: This letter was sent to Superintendent of Schools Bob Tremblay, Mayor Charlie Sisitsky, Health Director Alex DePalo, the 9-member Framingham School Committee and to SOURCE media.
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FRAMINGHAM – Before I say anything I would like to introduce myself. My name is Sophia Tersoni and I am a Junior at Framingham high school.
I am also a two season varsity athlete, which one of those sports include Varsity Girls Hockey. You may or may not have seen that this past Wednesday our team had our first win for one of our many Bay State League games, for the first time in three years. We have been doing great this season and have been working extremely hard, not only in games but also in practice to have a chance of making a huge comeback and qualifying for the tournament.
Fifteen girls out of the 22 girls on our team already had COVID less than two weeks ago and we finally got our whole team back after getting shut down for two weeks. Right when we come back, we now have to shut down for two more weeks after more than half of the team already had this virus? Not to mention our whole team and our coaches are fully vaccinated with some of us, including me having the booster shot. Correct me if I am wrong but didn’t Boys Wrestling, Varsity Boys Hockey, Varsity Girls Basketball, Varsity Boys Basketball also get shut down for two weeks already?
Speaking on behalf of my fellow classmates, friends and teammates this simply is not fair. Not only is it not fair to us athletes and coaches but what about the members of the Musical “In The Heights” that were supposed to have their opening night in exactly one week from today.
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I happen to take Acting 2 as a class this year and my teacher Mrs. Stephanie, who is one of the directors for the show, has put in so much dedication and time into preparing for this performance, I have seen it with my own eyes. I also just so happen to know Chris Brindley who is the director of the plays and Musicals for the Framingham Drama Company, and the effort and work he puts in to making an amazing show every year never goes unnoticed, so a week before the show you are telling them to postpone it? The sold out shows are now getting posted to a later date?
All these kids that have put in all of their spare time and dedication can’t even practice their scenes and choreography for two weeks? Didn’t this happen last year as well?
The Fall and spring sports and activities were all good to go but the winter sports and activities got thrown out into the dust.
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School has never come easy for me and I’m sure other kids feel the same way. There are times where the only thing I want to do is give up and not even try but then I remember that I’m risking not playing the sport that I have grown up playing for the past twelve years and that has helped me turn into the person I am today.
Hockey is one of the things that I look forward to after school everyday and I am sure the other student athletes will agree with me.
I am very fortunate to have a great family that supports me, but what about the kids that play sports and use that as a distraction from what’s going on at home and that consider their team as their family? What about the winter sport juniors and seniors that are looking to play in college and need to play in games in order for their dream of playing a college sport to come true?
I really am curious, did any of this come to mind when you canceled all Framingham activities and events? You are going to cancel our after school activities and we can’t even stay after school with our teachers for two weeks but still keep us in our overpopulated covid invested school for 6 hours a day? It just really does not make sense to me.
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Especially with midterms just around the corner you are taking away the one thing that is a stress reliever to kids. It is really sad to me that some people think the sports and after-school activities are the problem here when all of the sports teams, musical theater cast, and after school clubs follow the mask mandate and all of the protocols that have been put into place. Not to mention most of the after-school activities are usually less than an hour and a half while we have to sit in classrooms next to sometimes people we don’t even know for 6 hours a day.
High School is a very huge milestone for us students and we can never get those years back. After high school reality hits, there is no more practice and games, and bus rides if you aren’t playing a sport in college. Think about the seniors that have had their sophomore, junior, and now at the rate things are going with the City their senior year taken away from them as well.
I really do think that canceling after school activities for not only high school but youth activities as well for 2 weeks is a big mistake. I would really appreciate taking time out of your days to really listen to what I have to say.
Sincerely,
Sophia Tersoni
Framingham High Junior
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