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‘LOSING ALL OF IT’ Class of 2021 students share their thoughts on a frustratingly limited senior year. | BY ANDREA STETSON
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he 2020 high school seniors lost their prom and graduation, but many in the class of 2021 say they have it much worse. “They say 2020 was the worst, but it was not worse,” says Katherine Standish, a senior at St. John Neumann Catholic High School in Naples. “They got 70% of their school year. They were able to do group projects. They were able to sit in a crowded gym on a Friday night.” “They thought it was bad they lost the last quarter of last year, but we are losing all of it,” echoes Thomas Beatty, a senior at Gulf Coast
High School in Naples. Heather Morse, assistant principal at Estero High School, helped organize a drive-thru senior breakfast, senior signs and a virtual graduation last May. Now she wants to make senior year better for the Class of 2021 but can’t give them what they really desire. “We can’t have any big gatherings, so unfortunately there was no homecoming dance, no pep rallies,” Heather says. “For the athletes the capacity is very limited. At football games there is only 25% capacity for the fans, so that is a big adjustment for everybody.” It’s not just the big events, but how students interact is limited, too. “They have to socially distance at lunch,” Heather explains. “There is only four to a table rather than having as many kids as they want. So that is different, too.” It’s different and disappointing. “We are miss-
ing out on homecoming and we are missing out on assemblies,” Katherine says. “We are missing out on a lot of social interaction with each other.” Thomas is in band, Model U.N. and on the Mock Trial team. “Overall a lot of the extracurriculars are just being canceled,” he says. “Mock Trial has been completely canceled or is virtual now. The music performance we do every year for band has been canceled as well.” Model U.N. trips to compete around the state and the country are canceled. So is the Collier County Band Showcase and the big Florida Bandmasters Association competition. When the band performs at halftime, they don’t do a marching show. They stand in place and play their instruments. There are no away games for band, and for the first month the number of band students at home games was severely limited. Thomas says he’s glad that band senior night was able to happen with parents and seniors making the honorary march across the field wearing masks.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA PARENT & CHILD » DECEMBER 2020 » 23
