No chance ‘to say goodbye’: Stanislaus high school seniors talk of missed experiences
This is the time of year high school seniors begin to wind down from school work and gear up for those high school rites of passage.
“That one last opportunity to make memories going to the prom and Disneyland on the senior trip and all those events,” said Gregori senior Erica Axtell.
Instead, their memories will be of a time of isolation, concern for the health and safety of their families, and uncertainty about their futures with a crashing economy and skyrocketing unemployment rates.
When every school in Stanislaus County closed March 19 over the growing threat of COVID-19, “We all assumed we’d be back to school in a month,” said Turlock High senior Rios Rogers. “I never got a chance to say goodbye (to classmates).”
There was hope students would return in early to mid-April, then in May, but on April 1 county officials announced schools would remain closed through spring. Distance learning starts next week for most schools.
“You are caught off-guard,” said Modesto High School senior Liam Willerup, who serves as class secretary and student cheer section leader at rallies.
Had he known he wouldn’t be returning, Willerup said, he would have put a lot more energy into that final school rally, or the last time he did the school announcements.
“When they sent out that last notice that we weren’t going back, it was like, ‘OK, those senior activities are really gone,’ ” said Lauren Velasco, a Downey High School senior.
Downey High’s Velasco to miss ‘final curtain call’
Seniors are missing out on events for their entire class like prom, senior breakfast and senior sunset, as well as sports, musical concerts, theater and art programs specific to each individual.
Velasco said she is most disappointed that she has lost the opportunity to do her senior dance solo as a member of Downey Danceline, and fulfill a leadership role in the team four years in the making.
“I was most looking forward to that last show ... that final curtain call marking my senior year,” she said.
Athletics is what Rogers had most anticipated, particularity track and field.
He said his relay team started the year ahead of previous school records.
“We had big goals for this year, hopefully breaking school records and going to state,” he said.
Abby Van Diepen, a senior at Downey, said she was most excited about the school trip to Disneyland.
“One of my friends hasn’t been there,” she said. “It was going to be a really cool experience for our friend group and especially for him.”
Axtell, Gregori’s class president, said she wanted to see all her efforts from the past three years in leadership pay off. Putting on school dances — Sadie Hawkins freshman year, winter formal sophomore year and prom junior year — raises the funds for all the senior activities.
“I have worked really hard to plan them and coordinate with a lot of people,” she said. “I feel my hard work over the years has been thrown in the dust.”
Because Axtell was so involved in planning prom last year, she didn’t have the opportunity to relax and enjoy it. She thought she’d have that chance this year.
Her class raised $15,000 for senior activities, as well as their class gift to the school. They had planned to have a mural made.
Gregori’s Axtell talks of junior, senior proms
Because the junior class couldn’t host prom this year — by far the biggest moneymaker — they won’t have the funds for their senior activities next year, Axtell said. So her class is donating their money to the juniors.
“Our cancellations are out of our control; if they are able to have that money, it (becomes) more within our control,” she said.
While they are lamenting the things they are missing out on now, their ability to make decisions for their futures are also impacted.
For college-bound students, campus tours are a fundamental part of choosing which school to attend. Those often take place during spring break, but California was under a stay-at-home order before spring breaks even began, and some colleges stopped offering tours even before that.
Velasco has been accepted into dance programs at both the University of Arizona and Point Park University in Pittsburgh. She had the opportunity to tour the campus in Arizona last year but had to cancel plans to tour Point Park over spring break.
“It definitely makes me a little more nervous, which is why I haven’t committed yet,” she said. “I’ve never been to the city, let alone the campus. It has one of the highest-regarded dance programs in the country, and so I am hoping that I can take that leap of faith that it will be a good place for me, but I am still undecided if I can commit to a place I’ve never stepped foot on.”
Stanislaus County School Superintendent Scott Kuykendall, whose oldest son is a senior at Gregori, said “It is really hard when you’re a senior to make a decision like that to leave home and move across the country based on a visual tour. It is nothing close to being on campus and meeting other students and getting a feel for the culture and climate .”
His son was accepted at schools in Ohio and Texas, but without a visit, he instead might opt for Stanislaus State University or Modesto Junior College.
Still, those with college acceptance letters have a plan for the next four years, while the options are dwindling for those who’d hoped to attend a trade school or go directly into entry-level work.
Fewer options for new graduates
According to data from the Stanislaus County Cradle to Career program, 37 percent of graduates do not go on to a two- or four-year college.
“Job prospects are really, really slim right now,” Kuykendall said. “A lot of those entry-level positions in retail or food service; those particular sectors are not hiring currently”.
A lot of local job training opportunities are on hold as well, Kuykendall said, like the VOLT institute, which trains for careers in industrial electronics, automation and equipment maintenance.
Regardless of what they will do after graduation, seniors are wondering if there will even be a ceremony to commemorate it.
The students want to walk the stage and feel that shared accomplishment with their class. They want to get together with family and friends and celebrate their hard work.
School districts around the county have posted plans on their websites to hold graduation ceremonies in summer or fall, but the reality depends on what state and county restrictions are lifted at that point.
“Are kids really going to want to come back from college to go to their high school graduation?” Willerup said of the prospect of a fall ceremony.
Their senior years have turned out to be nothing like they’d envisioned, but the students say the sacrifices they are making at this pivotal point in their lives are one aspect of a history-making pandemic.
“I think there is something special to contribute to this global effort by sacrificing our senior experiences for the health and safety of our community,” Van Diepen said.
This story was originally published April 9, 2020 at 11:30 AM with the headline "No chance ‘to say goodbye’: Stanislaus high school seniors talk of missed experiences."
