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This month we transitioned from The Freshman Center into Morton East for our sophomore year. Although it was scary at first being in a way bigger school with a lot more students and upperclassmen it was really exciting. I began to feel a bigger sense of independence this month. I now know my way around the school a lot better and on my Junior year taking online classes, of course it's something no one expected and just weird to even think that everything was normal 12 months ago.
*INTELLECTUAL

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I don't remember much from this month besides the beginning of colder days along with pumpkin patches, funnel cake and petting zoos. Just in general a really fun time when everyone goes out to enjoy the weather.

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October is always really special because we always attend the "Opportunity Knocks" Halloween party. So it's a bit of an excuse to test-run our costumes. I dressed up as Piglet while the rest of my family dressed like the other characters from Winnie the Pooh. This month in particular I remember it being really cold, it snowed a couple of inches on Halloween day but it didn't stop us from going out trick or treating. Homecoming and the football games are also around the beginning of October so that's always really fun to experience and go out to.
*SOCIAL

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November is my absolute favorite time of the year and I find myself the happiest during this time because there's just a lot going on. Usually we go out to see the lights that people begin to put up along with the drive-in's. November is also my boyfriend's birth month so we get to celebrate that together early in the month along with our yearly anniversary later by the end.

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I LOVE Christmas time, this month we got to meet Santa Clause 3 different time. I know it seems extreme but you can never be too old for those sort of Christmas time activities. It's just overall a really fun month. But the first cases of COVID-19 began to pop up in Wuhan China this month. We really didn't expect what we had coming.

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New years we welcomed 2020 with open arms. Only to later on learn about the U.S. airstrike that  killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was the leader of Iran’s elite Quds Force. Trump of course only tweeted about it, and some vile threats were made towards him by many Iranians.   Thinking back to it, there was a lot of memes about it going around on social media but in reality everyone was honestly panicking. I particularly remember being really scared of a war outbreak  happening, not knowing what to expect or what to feel.
*DIPLOMACY/*POLITICAL

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Valentines day and my birthday month, I had two birthday parties both with my own family and one with my boyfriends family. Just like December and October it's one of the most enjoyable months for me because I get to celebrate. The first covid death was reported in the U.S. after that the cases just began to rise higher in numbers.

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Friday, March 13 was my last day at school. After school my dad made sure we were stocked with enough food and other necessary materials, because he wasn't sure if he'd be laid off or not. Most other families were doing the same and most stores were drastically stripped of every product. March was also a really bad month for me myself, self-isolation basically killed my mental health and I found myself in a deep hole where no one could reach me.
*ECONOMIC

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Gov. J.B. Pritzker ordered all Illinois schools closed by Tuesday, sending parents scrambling to make alternative arrangements for the roughly 2 million children affected by the state's latest attempt to slow the coronavirus.

The order - which also includes private and charter schools - will be in effect until at least March 30.

"Let me be clear, I understand the gravity of this action and what it means for every community in our great state," Pritzker said. "None of the decisions we have had to make over the last week have been easy or simple."

Illinois is among nine states to shutter its schools as governors have taken dramatic steps to decelerate the pandemic. The Chicago Archdiocese and at least 90 other districts statewide already had canceled classes before Pritzker's decision Friday.

The closures make life more complicated for countless parents, including Dani Bates, a single mother from Aurora who works at a long-term health care facility and cannot telecommute. Between the governor's order and Indian Prairie School District 204′s previously scheduled spring break, her 8-year-old son Nolan will not be back in class until at least April 6.

Bates, who gets paid hourly, doesn't have vacation time available and can't afford to put Nolan in full-time day care. She is considering sending her son to Virginia for three weeks to spend time with her ex-husband and his family, but an adult would have to accompany him on both flights to make sure he washed his hands frequently, covered his mouth when he coughed and practiced social distancing on the plane.

She planned to check flight costs Friday night after stopping at Aldi to buy toilet paper and canned food.

"I understand the reason for closing schools and the health issues involved," Bates said. "But I have been far more anxious about the child care aspect of this than I have been about the coronavirus itself."

Each school district is expected to handle the closure differently, with some ceasing educational instruction until the order is lifted and others providing lessons online. Prior to Pritzker's announcement, more than 75 school districts had notified the Illinois State Board of Education that they intended to implement e-learning that allows children to study at home via the internet.

Pritzker will allow schools to remain open Monday so students can collect their learning materials and teachers can explain how the at-home lesson plans will work. CPS will be open, but many other districts have canceled classes.

The state will view these as "act of God" days, meaning school personnel are expected to be paid during the next two weeks. The governor also waived the requirement that schools be in session for 180 days to receive state funding, meaning no district will lose tax dollars as a result of cancellations.

"This is an unprecedented event in our lifetime, and we will get through this together," said Carmen Ayala, the state superintendent of education.

Pritzker's edict came just hours after Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she had no plans to close the schools and that the governor had not pressured her to do so. As she has repeatedly done in recent days, Lightfoot noted the "significant secondary effect" of closing Chicago public schools because working parents would need to find child care while the kids were out of class and because many of the 355,000 CPS children count on the schools for multiple meals each day.

To bolster her position, Lightfoot had Chicago Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady explain to reporters that children don't appear to be contracting or transmitting the virus at nearly the rates of older people.

"We all know children, for most diseases, actually are big vectors," Arwady said, with Lightfoot at her side. "They have the potential to spread disease a lot. But this particular one, based on what we've seen to this point, does not seem to be, certainly primarily, driven by children."

Pritzker countered with his own expert, Illinois Department of Public Health Director Ngozi Ezike, who said studies showed closing schools can help slow the spread of viruses. While she acknowledged children haven't been struck as severely by COVID-19, they can still contribute to its spread.

"We have seen evidence from influenza outbreaks that community mitigation strategies, such as school closures, have an effect on decreasing the severity of the outbreak," Ezike said. "By taking these actions now, we hope to slow and limit widespread transmission of this virus, which is essential to ensuring our health care system is not overwhelmed as the disease progresses through our state. School closures will help slow the progression of the virus and we are asking for everyone's help in reducing the spread."

At her own news conference following Pritzker's announcement, Lightfoot said the governor needed to consider the entire state's needs and not just those of Chicago Public Schools. Though she insisted she and Pritzker were in "lockstep," she did not attend Pritzker's media availability as she had the previous day.

Instead, she said, she was focusing on plans to help CPS families deal with this latest challenge. Eligible families will be able to pick up a three-day supply of meals outside their nearest school for each eligible child beginning Tuesday. Students also will be given enrichment materials, though the district currently is not equipped to replicate a full school day online.

Park District facilities will remain open, but Lightfoot encouraged families to stay home.

"For now, let me say in light of this order the best place for our students to be is at home," she said. "We all have a role to play in stopping the spread of this virus."

To that end, Lightfoot called on Chicago's business community to be understanding of parents and give them the time they need.

"Working families across the public and private sectors need this flexibility," she said. "No parent should be forced to choose between staying at home or earning a paycheck."

CPS parent Tyler Young supported the move, even though it would disrupt her daughter's freshman year at Amundson High School in the city's Ravenswood neighborhood. Young, a home health care provider, said it was a preventive measure that needed to be taken in order to minimize the virus.

"It doesn't make sense to have all of the sports closures and the bigger closures that would affect adults but then allow the children to congregate," Young said. "It's all one big community."

The order came a day after Pritzker canceled all public events drawing more than 1,000 people and asked that gatherings be no larger than 250. The state had 46 confirmed cases as of Friday, up from 32 Thursday.

Wisconsin, Ohio, West Virginia, Michigan, Maryland, New Mexico, Oregon and Virginia also have closed schools. Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb did not cancel classes, but he has given districts a 20-day waiver of the required 180 instructional days to use as needed.

Illinois' indefinite closures, however, create problems unlike those faced when school is canceled for inclement weather or holidays. Many parents cannot turn to child care centers or day camps for help because the ones they rely on have themselves closed in an effort to thwart the virus.

The governor is allowing day care facilities to remain open for now.

"All of these choices have cascading effects for citizens and vulnerable populations when it comes to food access, safety, child care, and social services," Pritzker said. "One small step at a time, we will get through this together."

As parents scramble to find child care, school officials face the arduous task of figuring out how to provide meals to economically disadvantaged students who rely on the subsidized breakfast and lunch programs.

With more than 260,000 Chicago Public School students receiving free meals, the challenge is greater than it typically is over the summer or than it was during the teacher's strike in the fall. Now school officials must find a way to feed the children while keeping them away from one another.

CPS families will be able to pick up meals outside of their nearest CPS school beginning Tuesday morning, Lightfoot said. The district is also working with the Greater Chicago Food Depository and other food providers to support families.

"This is not forever," Pritzker said. "This is a sacrifice in the short term."

Some families won't feel the pinch as sharply as others, though. When Hawthorn Woods resident Allison Clark, 46, learned her two children's school would be closed through the end of the month, she saw it as an opportunity to embrace the downtime.

"It might be hard to work sometimes, with the kids fighting and bickering over the iPad, which might be the biggest stress for me," said Clark, a freelance writer and editor, who said she and her husband both work from home. "But I'm hoping to make them understand that we can do this, that we'll be fine, and we'll all get through this."

Just after the final bell rang at Evanston Township High School Friday, hundreds of students, including senior Isaac Slevin, poured out of the building without any guarantees of when they would return. The students are set to start online classes Tuesday and planned to return to campus April 12 - as long as the outbreak doesn't worsen.

A member of the debate team, Isaac's hopes of winning a state championship had been dashed after finals were canceled. The high school basketball games he usually attended also were nixed. And the school's prom and graduation festivities are in limbo.

"I'm personally pessimistic given what I've read about what CDC has said about how long we're going to have this pandemic," Isaac said about the possibility of there being a commencement ceremony. "I walked out of my English class today not knowing if I'm going to be back."

Chicago Tribune's Karen Cullotta and Rosemary Sobol contributed.

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Governor cancels Illinois schools statewide until March 30 to slow the spread of coronavirus

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Gov. J.B. Pritzker ordered all Illinois schools closed by Tuesday, sending parents scrambling to make alternative arrangements for the roughly 2 million children affected by the state's latest attempt to slow the coronavirus. The order - which also includes private and charter schools - will be in effect until at least March 30.

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April was worse than March. I was in an even worse mental state, simple things such as brushing my hair became difficult tasks. My dad actually got laid off in late April, i'm still so grateful that we prepared for it. Around this time the virus was out of control, cases just began to rise and thousands of people were dying everyday. Many questioned Trumps choices for the country.

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I began to pull myself onto my own feet and also made new friendships. At this point I fully returned to my connection with my religious beliefs although no masses were being held . The world was  beginning to slowly heal from the virus but not completely. Many people were protesting the use of masks. It's unbelievable that people actually questioned the use of masks. To my knowledge, when I came back from my mom's this summer in July, Michigan was still in quarantine due to people not following lock-down enforcement that was put in early March.
*RELIGION

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A protester carries his rifle at the State Capitol in Lansing, Mich., Thursday, April 30, 2020. Hoisting American flags and handmade signs, protesters returned to the state Capitol to denounce Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's stay-home order and business restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic while lawmakers met to consider extending her emergency declaration hours before it expires. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) (Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

LANSING, Mich. - Michigan's stay-at-home order is helping lower the chance of a second wave of the coronavirus, said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, addressing reporters at a press conference Monday.

"The devastation from a second wave could dwarf the hardship that we have already encountered. We made these sacrifices, let's not make them in vain," said Whitmer.

Members of the governor's administration say the state is making progress toward beating the coronavirus outbreak in Michigan. Just last week Whitmer revealed the six stages of her planto stop the spread of the coronavirus and fully reopen the state. The state is currently at phase three of that plan.
MESSAGE TO GUN YIELDING PROTESTORS
Michigan republican lawmakers recently filed a lawsuit against the governor alleging that she exceeded her authority by issuing so many executive orders. Not all businesses have followed the stay-at-home order.

"These executive orders have the force of law, and we expect people to abide by them. Most businesses have a license from the state and they are putting themselves at risk by putting their customers and selves at risk by opening pre-maturely," said Whitmer.

Lockdown protests at the Michigan State Capitol with gun yielding participants have garnered national attention.

Whitmer said she is really "disappointed" that the Michigan Capitol Commission delayed its decision to ban guns from the Capitol.
Read MORE: Michigan Capitol Commission votes to study possible ban on guns at Capitol Building
This Thursday another protestis planned in Lansing. Whitmer noted that there are a lot of lawmakers fearful of going to work.

"I am increasingly concerned about the violent nature of the extreme comments that are being made around these organizations and groups that are coming together. The violent, racist extreme rhetoric that has already been connected to Thursday's rally," said Whitmer in response to threats being made against her.

She says the rhetoric could be avoided if Republican leadership in the legislature would step up and denounce it.
EXPANDING STATEWIDE TESTING
"I would appreciate it if others would do their part to try and lower the heat. If you chose to demonstrate I ask that you wear a mask and stay six feet apart from others," said Whitmer.

Whitmer noted that as more people get tested the number of positive cases has been declining.

READ MORE: Michigan Gov. Whitmer: Goal is to test 450,000 residents for virus in May

Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, Chief Medical Executive and Chief Deputy Director for Health for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, also spoke at the press conference.

Khaldun says the rate of increasing new cases is continuing to slow, meaning the rate of new infections has dropped. "It has dropped, in fact twenty-five percent in the past seven days statewide. This is very encouraging," said Khaldun.

The number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in Michigan has risen to 47,552as of Monday night, including 4,584 deaths, state officials report. The official recovery total is 22,686.

Khaldun noted that since the start of COVID-19 Michigan has tested over 290,000 people. She says the state is close to reaching its goal of conducting 15,000 tests per day and on Thursday completed 14,221 tests.

Tricia L. Foster, Chief Operating Officer for the governor's executive office says the federal government indicted that it would be matching the state's need from going to 15,000 tests a day to 30,000 tests per day.

"With the new supplies and deploying them accordingly, our next goal over the next 30 days is 30,000 tests per day," said Foster.

Moving forward the state will be paying closer attention to contact tracing. There are plans underway to hire up to 1,000 paid staff in partnership with local health departments.

Officials on the governor's administration say aggressive testing, contact tracing and isolation will be the only way to get ahead of this disease.

"Until we have a vaccine, until we can do more to keep safe, social distancing is still the best tool that we have and we're all safer at home," said Whitmer. "It is true the aggressive action we have taken as a state to fight this virus, those actions are working because the people of Michigan are doing their part."

Whitmer added that as governor she would do everything in her power to protect families from COVID-19. "We are not out of the woods yet. It is our responsibility to all continue doing our part," she said.
ARE STATE PARKS STAYING OPEN?
The governor said COVID-19 is still present in 79 out of 83 counties. Obviously, some areas in the state have been hit harder than others. Because of that there is a possibility that some areas could re-engage at different paces than others, said Whitmer.

Currently, state parks are open for recreational activities. The governor's administration will continue to monitor the data and reports coming out of state parks.

"I'll continue to make decisions based on what is best for overall health and safety in terms of what our trajectory looks like and what are capabilities look like if we do have a COVID-19 outbreak," she said.

Khaldun says medication to treat COVID-19 arrived in Michigan over the weekend.

According to Khaldun, just this Saturday the state received 40 cases of the experimental anti-viral drug remdesivir to treat the coronavirus. The cases were shipped to hospitals across the state that have seen the highest number of COVID-19 cases, burdens of deaths and sickest patients. Khaldun says it is still unclear whether the medication works.

Many want to know whether it is fine to get together with people in their social circle if no one has the virus. The governor says people respond to the virus differently.

"You could carry COVID-19 and not even know it. In fact a lot of people are asymptomatic and not even know it," she said. "One person carrying COVID-19 can infect tens of thousands in a matter of days and that is why it is important that we still continue to observe the stay-at-home order now so we decrease the chance of a second wave."

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'I ask that you wear a mask and stay six feet apart': Michigan governor to participants of upcoming protest at Capitol

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LANSING, Mich. - Michigan's stay-at-home order is helping lower the chance of a second wave of the coronavirus, said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, addressing reporters at a press conference Monday. "The devastation from a second wave could dwarf the hardship that we have already encountered. We made these sacrifices, let's not make them in vain," said Whitmer.

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In early June BLM  protest began to rise after the death of George Floyd, protesting police brutality and racism.  Most protests were peaceful but turned reckless when teargas was aimed at the crowds. Many people took advantage of this and the looting began. I was in Michigan at my mom's at the time and only heard about it through Tik-Tok and a call from my dad. Due to the reckless looting a couple of assassinations occurred very very close to where I live.

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Black Lives Matter Chicago held a protest Monday night in which they defended looting as a form of 'reparations'

Drawbridges into Chicago were raised Monday night and freeway exits closed as downtown was locked down

Precautions were being taken to avoid a second night of chaos, following riots and looting in the early hours

SWAT teams were seen patrolling the streets of the Illinois city on Monday afternoon

Protests and looting erupted when a false rumor spread that police had shot and killed a child on Sunday

Police in fact had shot and injured a 20-year-old man, who ran from them, turning to fire his gun at officers

Latrell Allen has been charged with attempted murder after the shooting on Sunday which sparked the riots

Chicago's Magnificent Mile was hit by looters after hundreds of demonstrators clashed with police

People then started organizing on Twitter and Facebook to loot downtown in a caravan of vehicles

The violence coincided with the sixth anniversary of Michael Brown's death in Ferguson, Missouri

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the looting had nothing to do with peaceful protest over police brutality

She denied that the decision not to prosecute looters during George Floyd riots had spurred on looters now

Black Lives Matter Chicago said early Monday's looting of stores was a form of 'reparations' as the group held a protest Monday night in support of the more than 100 people arrested after an evening of violence.

Downtown Chicago was otherwise quiet after authorities cut off access, with drawbridges leading into the city pulled up and freeway exits blocked after riots sparked by a false rumor of a child shot by police.

At least 13 police officers were injured as the violence claimed an estimated $65 million in property damage.

Ariel Atkins, a BLM organizer, called the looting 'reparations'.

'I don't care if someone decides to loot a Gucci or a Macy's or a Nike store, because that makes sure that person eats,' Atkins said. 'That makes sure that person has clothes.

'Anything they wanted to take, they can take it because these businesses have insurance.'

Earlier, Mayor Lori Lightfoot had warned looters who ransacked the city that they are being sought by police and angrily hit back at questions over whether a failure to prosecute those involved in the looting after George Floyd's death had created a sense of impunity.

The man whose actions sparked the unrest, 20-year-old Latrell Allen, was charged with attempted murder of police.

Allen, who had previous arrests for child endangerment, domestic battery and burglary, was confronted by police on Sunday afternoon and fled, turning around and shooting multiple rounds at officers as he fled. He was shot and injured by police, returning fire, and rumor then spread that a child had been killed by officers.

Social media was soon alight with rallying cries for protests and looting.

On Monday afternoon, SWAT teams were seen patrolling the streets, in a bid to avoid a repeat of the chaos.

Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx dropped charges against several hundred protesters arrested for looting and other offenses during the George Floyd protests.

David Brown, Chicago Police Superintendent, said at the Monday press conference that looters could have been behaving 'as if there are not consequences' because of 'what happened previously'.

A reporter, addressing the police chief, said: 'It almost sounds as though you were saying the reason we have this is the courts and the prosecutors were not doing their job, that they were going too easy on the looters from the last time around. Is that my understanding?'

Brown replied: 'Don't take it from me. Just go about what's been done. I don't want to do your job for you but go about what's been done. There were no consequences for the people arrested.'

At this point, Lightfoot stood up and addressed the reporter.

'Let's be clear,' she said. 'Don't bait us! OK? Do not bait us. Do not bait us.

'This is a serious situation. People are concerned about their safety. Officers are concerned about their safety. So don't bait us.

'What we're saying is, as a result of what happened last night, there have to be consequences.

'We've got teams of people that are aggressively out there identifying the people responsible, looking at the plates, and working on bringing them to justice.

'But when we do, and we do make those arrests, our expectation is that is going to be treated with the level of seriousness that it should be, period.'

She angrily denied that Foxx's decision, or any other ruling by the Chicago authorities, contributed towards the unrest.

'Don't try to bait us, mischaracterize, pit one against the other,' she said.

'We're not playing that. We're in a serious situation here, and we need a serious response. That's what we're saying, period.'

The tense stand-off that lasted several hours on Sunday night and in to Monday morning was described by Deputy Police Chief Yolanda Talley as 'very hostile'.

In response to that incident, people on social media organized for a caravan of cars to descend on the city's downtown shopping district to loot.

Police found out about the posts and within 15 minutes were downtown - but the violence had begun.

Cars plowed through storefronts to give the crowds easy access.

Despite there being 400 officers dispatched to the area, the officers struggled to keep up with the crowds.

One officer was attacked with a bottle, another had his nose broken and a group of different officers were shot at by drive-by assailants while trying to arrest other looters.

Along the Magnificent Mile, people were seen going in and out of stores carrying shopping bags full of merchandise as well as at a bank, the Chicago Tribune reported, and as the crowd grew vehicles dropped off more people in the area.

One officer was seen slumped against a building, several arrests were made and a rock was thrown at a police vehicle, the newspaper said.

Police worked early Monday to disperse the crowds.

There was a large police presence Monday morning outside an Apple store located north of Chicago's downtown area.

Blocks away, debris was strewn in parking lots in front of a Best Buy and a large liquor store.

Train and bus service into downtown was temporarily suspended at the request of public safety officials, the Chicago Transit Authority said on Twitter.

Bridges over the Chicago River were lifted, preventing travel to and from the downtown area, and Illinois State Police blocked some expressway ramps into downtown.

On Monday morning, police were still arresting people at a Best Buy which was among the stores that had been ransacked.

Some of the city's bridges were raised and tunnels were closed while police tried to regain control of the situation.

MAYOR LIGHTFOOT'S REMARKS: 'THERE IS NO EXCUSE'

Lightfoot said it was disturbing that the looters targeted small businesses that are still struggling to recover from months of COVID-19 closures.

'This was an assault on our city. It undermines public safety and breathes a sense of insecurity among our residents.

'It undermines our recovery efforts - these same stores were hit previously, not just by looting but by closures related to COVID-19.

'They are also small stores and restaurants all of which we're in the process of recovering and getting back to work, and now this.'

She said there was 'no justification' for the looting, and said it had nothing to do with Black Lives Matter, or George Floyd, or Michael Brown - the Missouri teenager shot dead six years ago Sunday.

'I don't care - I do not care - whatever justification was given for this,' she said.

'There is no justification for criminal behavior ever.

'You have no right to take and destroy the property of others.

'Our residents deserve to be safe.

'Our businesses deserve to understand and enjoy safety and security,' she said.

She pleaded with prosecutors and the courts to do their part to bring those responsible to justice once they are found and identified.

'Our police officers deserve to be able to do their job without having to worry about shots being fired, being maced - this is not anywhere near acceptable.

'I call upon our state's attorney and our courts to make sure these individuals are arrested and held accountable.

'Put your best people on this. We have made the case - these people need to be held accountable. 'We can't continue to allow this to happen,' she said.

'We woke up in shock this morning. These individuals engaged in brazen destruction.

'This had nothing to do with legitimate protected First Amendment speech. Regardless what occurred in our downtown was abject criminal behavior, pure and simple.

'There cannot be any excuse for it. Period.

'This was not legitimate First Amendment speech, not poor people engaged in petty theft to feed themselves and their families...

'This was straight up felony criminal conduct,' she said.

It was one of a handful of incidents of unrest across America that coincided with the sixth anniversary of Michael Brown's death.

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Chicago goes into lockdown after night of chaos led to 100 arrests

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Black Lives Matter Chicago held a protest Monday night in which they defended looting as a form of 'reparations' Drawbridges into Chicago were raised Monday night and freeway exits closed as downtown was locked down Precautions were being taken to avoid a second night of chaos, following riots and looting

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I was finally able to see my boyfriend and his family on the 4th of July after not seeing any of them for 3 months. It was definitely a much needed reunion, it made me really happy to be back. Now that things began to open up and people weren't as scared to come out, my boyfriend finally started playing again. All of July and August I spent at games and ended up with some pretty painful sunburns and funny tan-lines.

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#saveourchildren became something very important to the public after records of over 1,500 children have gone missing in ICE custody. Many people are slowly coming together to protest. It's unbelievable the things that have been unveiled.  In my boyfriends baseball team two of his teammates tested positive for COVID, everyone was panicking rushing to get tested. It was definitely a scary thing but we weren't too worried because we know we follow precautions during games. We tested negative. We finally also went back to school, online of course and it's been a struggle getting used to this new lifestyle. It's really hard to even think back to when things were "normal" and we'd all be in a small classroom with no mask. Things have definitely changed since then.

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Hashtags "Save the Children" and "Save Our Children" drew national attention across social media platforms recently, reaping awareness against human trafficking and action within the nation. As of today, 1.1 million people are talking about #SavetheChildren and 585 thousand are talking about #SaveOurChildren on Facebook. As of August 10, #SavetheChildren was trending on Twitter with 198 thousand tweets.

According to the International Business Times, amid social action a flash rally for the cause was held August 9 in Savannah, GA at which participants rallied against human trafficking while also raising awareness. The International Business Times wrote that those who participated in the social media trend did so in hopes of drawing attention from the authorities so action may be taken, as the participants called this current human trafficking a "pandemic."

Idaho Falls also took action to raise awareness against the cause recently with a chalk art project, according to East Idaho News. East Idaho New reported that as part of this project volunteers came together to write various messages to gain awareness against child trafficking. Some messages written included "Child Lives Matter" and "I am not for $ale #everychildmatters." The volunteers of the project said its purpose was to educate others and work to do something to stop trafficking.

Human trafficking is not only a national topic but also a local topic, found in the four states as well. According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, human trafficking is defined as "a form of modern slavery that occurs in every state." In 2019 alone, the National Human Trafficking Hotline confirmed 233 cases reported in Missouri with 69 as minors, 86 in Arkansas with 38 as minors, 92 in Kansas with 30 as minors, and 109 in Oklahoma with 23 as minors.

According to SavetheChildren.net, a quarter of trafficking victims are children and due to COVID-19 victims are further isolated, making them harder to reach. Save the Children writes that there are an estimated amount of 40 million trafficking victims with 10 million being under the age of 18. They further report that in the United States, 60 percent of child trafficking victims have a history in the child welfare system. Additionally, children in the foster system are more likely to be victimized by child trafficking.

Save the Children reported that COVID-19 has also affected the typical ways of trafficking, forcing human traffickers to adapt and change their exploitation ways. One way listed that these traffickers now utilize is greater online communication.

As written on their website, Save the Children advocates for national and international children that their rights and voices are heard and respected. If you suspect or witness child trafficking, contact the Childhelp National Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-CHILD or 1-800-422-4453.

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'Save the Children': Social media trend creates awareness against human trafficking

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Hashtags "Save the Children" and "Save Our Children" drew national attention across social media platforms recently, reaping awareness against human trafficking and action within the nation. As of today, 1.1 million people are talking about #SavetheChildren and 585 thousand are talking about #SaveOurChildren on Facebook.