How a school student’s experience of the pandemic destroyed his faith in government

Martin Shipton

The youngest member of a campaign group composed of bereaved relatives whose loved ones died during the pandemic says he has lost all trust in governments as a result of his experiences.

Now 21, Rhys Hopkin-Morgan, of Gowerton, Swansea, was studying for his GCSEs when Covid-19 disrupted his education.

On top of that, he, his parents and two younger brothers had to deal with the anguish of losing his much-loved aunt Lynne to Covid on Christmas Eve 2020. She was vulnerable as a result of multiple health issues, but was put into a hospital Covid ward following a car accident.

Rhys had hoped to give evidence to the UK Covid Inquiry, but the group to which he belongs – Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru – has not been granted core participant status for the inquiry’s Module 8 hearings on Children and Young People, which begin on September 29.

Mistakes

Instead, he agreed to speak to Nation.Cymru about what he sees as the mistakes made by the Welsh Government in handling the crisis so far as young people were concerned.

He said: “In school it wasn’t really specified how dangerous Covid was, so young people didn’t really care. And that should have been changed straight away. The risk was magnified because young people didn’t understand the value of keeping safe. It wasn’t described to us as a dangerous virus that could kill you and your family.

“It was seen more as a precaution than a serious situation. And I think that was a massive fault. We were told to socially distance, wear masks and wash our hands. But if I’m completely honest, it wasn’t taken as seriously as it should have been, in the sense that people were going up to each other and nobody would stop them. Nobody would stop the kids from interacting.

“I struggled a lot going back after lockdown, mainly because I was struggling with a lot of grief and I didn’t really want to be there. I really started to pick up on things because I was so angry and I was so upset. All it would take was a minute detail. Like teachers in the staff room being close and shaking hands or sharing the same mug or something like that – something stupid. I would pick up on these things and it would make me very angry.

“And what I found straight away was that there was pretty much zero help towards me and my family. All the help I had was a form tutor telling me it’s going to be fine, that if I just kept working and showed up and did what I needed to do, I could get out of the school and get my grades. We did ask after that for some counselling, but it never happened.

“As a kid, you’re going to get angry about these things and you’re not really going to understand it. But because of what happened to me and my family, I was very much zoned in on the fact that these people weren’t doing it properly, they weren’t being safe. And it’s quite upsetting when you have to deal with other groups, sometimes people the same age as you, not really understanding it and saying it’s not real or or just being very disrespectful.” For months in lockdown, like pupils across Wales, Rhys and his brothers had to work from home, being taught online.

Online learning

He said: “In my opinion, it doesn’t work. It didn’t work for me. I didn’t see it working for my brothers, especially my youngest brother, because he had to deal with homework being sent either by post or by a group chat.

“The annoying thing from my own experience with online learning was that my main focus was trying to get my GCSEs done. But then having to deal with this at the same time, that went out the window. It wasn’t the main concern any more, which was looking after your family, doing whatever you can for them.

“So when you’re given lacklustre information about tasks through Teams, group chat or a Zoom meeting, and then being told to get on with it and then join back later, that’s not teaching.

“I was very much learning and developing, and honing my skills. So if you’re relying on learning not just school work and the curriculum, but learning and developing and honing your skills as a whole, I don’t think that can be done via online. I don’t think it works.

“You can’t give someone work to do via Zoom, via online that you would normally do in class, in person. It’s got to be adapted. It’s got to be understood in a way that’s easy from home – not just telling people to write something out like they would in class.

“One friend of mine didn’t have a computer. I know the school provided him with one. But providing somebody with a computer who’s never had a computer – there’s implications there that need to be sorted.

“I think there should have been more consideration, more organisation and more structure. Everything was very much, ‘oh, this is the norm now. Let’s just get used to it’, not let’s work together and let’s find solutions to get around certain problems that each child from each family would normally have. And if there’s one thing that I’ve noticed is you always have to be considerate, always have to understand. Not just the class as a whole. Every child is different. Every child has a family. Every child has a different background. And that’s always got to be considered and acknowledged, especially if circumstances are different.

“In any other situation, there would be support and there’d be structure and the organisation for each child to get the teaching and the learning that it needs. And I think it should be the case regardless of what the situation is.”

‘Loose advice’

Explaining his lack of trust in governments, Rhys said: “In a national emergency, there’s no room for loose advice and there’s no room for lack of discipline or a lack of educating people in the right manner. There was no education on how dangerous it could have been. And that is something that is completely on them and their fault.

“The reason I think so many people suffered from Covid and also from the school impact is because the rules weren’t followed correctly. It wasn’t described and explained the way it should have been. It was very much dumbed down and it should never have been dumbed down.

“I’ll speak my mind and I’m not afraid to say it. I think they were scared of civil unrest. And I think they were scared of what a lack of trust and lack of guidance on their part could lead to.

“They’ve caused civil unrest. They’ve caused people to start rioting. They’ve caused people to have a lack of trust in the government. I feel like every single time I look at the TV and turn on the news, whenever I see any government politician, any government figure, I instantly think to myself, what are they hiding? There’s no trust any more. There’s nothing. And I think the one simple reason is because they couldn’t handle it. They couldn’t understand or comprehend the situation they were in, and they would have rather lied to us to try and keep us safe than tell us the truth. But if the truth was told in the first place, we wouldn’t have had the situation we had.”

‘Play the game’

He added: “I can honestly say I have zero trust in government. I have zero trust in any politician that takes the stage and says, ‘I set things right’. “During the pandemic and after the loss of my auntie, that’s when I really switched on when it came to politics, because I needed to know how to understand it, how to play the game, because I didn’t want to miss anything. I needed to know what they were saying and why they were saying it.

“And in a way I feel like I resorted to learning a lot about it because I was directly impacted by that government not doing their job. I also feel when I look at the TV nowadays and I look at the news or anything to do with the government media or just general politics, that impact I had has greatly affected my situation with lack of trust. I am very judgmental in what I see because I don’t believe that what I see is true.”

Asked how optimistic he was that if another pandemic occurred, the situation would be handled better, he said: “No. I feel like my trust in any situation like that with this government and this country has gone out the window. I feel like if we were to suddenly have another wave out of the blue, I would barricade the doors and lock ourselves in, because I don’t believe that the government understands the damage that’s been caused. I don’t understand why that hasn’t been acknowledged as a nation and as a United Kingdom, because everything that was put in place was either faulty or done half right, and people weren’t educated enough to follow the rules.

“I know it sounds quite daft to be saying this. I understand it’s a different time period, but my dad mentioned the Second World War and how people reacted. People pulled together and did everything they could to make sure they looked after this country and looked after its people. That wasn’t the case with Covid, and I feel that’s because the government didn’t educate people properly and as a result people weren’t pulling together how they should have been. Yes, some. But not the whole country. The value of life to someone is so important, but you don’t realise how precious it is until it’s gone.”

‘Swept under the carpet’

Rhys’s mother Lisa said: “Our second son Jack was in Year 8 when Covid hit. He was no longer the lowest of the school on a journey of finding their feet. Expressing their strengths and most importantly weaknesses. Online learning did not support or encourage these very important stages of their educational journey. Every part of online learning was on a one level basis, often not to the needs and abilities of each individual child.

“Covid has basically now been swept under the carpet. The kids are expected to just get back at it. Some just don’t know what they are meant to be doing. They’ve missed out on so many basics.”

Anna-Louise Marsh-Rees, group lead of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru , said: “Rhys has been a huge help to our group in demonstrating how Covid bereavement impacted younger adults and children, and how this has been totally ignored.

“It’s unfortunate our application to be in Module 8 was refused as we weren’t deemed to have significant experience. But we really have. “Recognising the impact on children and young people is so important. They are our future leaders and have lost trust in their government and systems. This is another reason why it’s so important that this gets covered properly in a Wales Inquiry.”