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Class of 2021, interrupted BY REBECCA LEFTWICH becky@newnan.com
Jaylen Wh atley wa s lying in bed, listening to the new Rod Wave album and thinking about hitting his long jump mark at track practice the next day – and then his window blew in. Across town, Jane Campbell was talking to a friend and worrying about a math quiz when her father told her to get in the basement. Campbell called him dramatic and her friend said, “Tell your dad to calm down.” But the EF4 tornado that hit Newnan just after midnight on March 26 took part of the roof off Whatley’s Smokey Road home and missed Campbell’s home off Newnan Crossing Boulevard by mere yards. And Whatley and Campbell – both seniors at Newnan High School – quickly learned that their school had taken a catastrophic hit during the storm, which also demolished hundreds of businesses throughout the city. The global COVID-19
PHOTO BY REBECCA LEFTWICH
Seniors Angela Ayala, Jack Johnstone, Jane Campbell and Jaylen Whatley are shown in front of Newnan High School, which suffered catastrophic damage when an EF4 tornado moved through the city March 26.
pandemic had forced the pair to bid an abrupt goodbye to their junior year in March of 2020, and Coweta County Schools had resumed regular operations just weeks before. A
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few days later, the school system announced that Newnan High students would f in ish the yea r virtually. “After the winds died down and we surveyed the
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damage to our campus and community, there was no way to sugarcoat it,” Principal Chase Puckett said. So he texted the Class of 2021. “The past two years have
not been fair to them,” Puckett said. He told the students it’s ok to be angry, it’s ok to cry and it’s ok to feel cheated – INTERRUPTED . 2
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APRIL 14, 2021