This year, prefects have faced a change in the tasks that they would fulfill in a typical year prior to the pandemic. Before the pandemic, prefects would perform and monitor duty, which was a system in which a class would be assigned three weeks to clean communal spaces like the locker room and computer lab.

Senior and prefect Evan Manioudakis stated, “In an ordinary year, we would just keep school spirit and keep the community clean.” 

However, several tasks have been added during the pandemic. These include monitoring mask wearing and social distancing.

“We are encouraged to tell people to wear a mask and correct the mask,” said senior prefect Victoria Vecchione. Prefects have also been positioned in the locker room to control the amount of people that go in and out of the lockers.

Along with the locker room, the prefects have been discussing whether or not they should monitor the lunch line, as there have been issues with cutting and rule following. However, as of the moment, they do not think it is necessary.

This year, prefects have faced many challenges enforcing the rules. A very prominent challenge occurred in gaining the respect of the students.

“Students don’t listen to students,” Vecchione said.

Chris Kim, senior and head prefect, said specifically that he has faced challenges in monitoring the school, as he is a virtual student. He finds it especially hard to stay updated. In order to make sure he remains informed, he checks in with the other in-person prefects to make sure that everyone is aware of the rules and following them.

Another issue occurred in scheduling prefect meetings, which are held bi-weekly on Saturday mornings (Eastern Time), since they had to find a time that was able to be met in different time zones. As Maniodakis said, “There’s a lot of bumps, and some things might not always go the way they should.” 

In the future, Kim hopes to host more virtual activities as have been done in the past. These have been held every month and allow the students to interact outside of the academic classroom. Kim is also in charge of a prefect TikTok account, which he hopes to add to, and is also an active member of the student council. 

The duties of the prefects have changed quite a bit this year, but they are still performing tasks that overall make the school a better place.