James Madison High School in Brooklyn has some alumni you’ve probably heard of, including Senators Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and JUDGE Judy, and the musician Carole King.
Now, all of a sudden, the 750 graduating seniors at James Madison are just a little bit famous, too. Administrators and staff members at the school have printed out their yearbook headshots, laminated them by hand and hung them on the fence surrounding the school.
In this, the strangest of springs, high schools around the country are looking for creative ways to honor their seniors, who will step out into the world without having walked across a graduation stage, gone to prom, or luxuriated in the gentle slacking of a senior spring. They are trying, somehow, to make graduation feel special, even without the customary pomp and circumstance.
In Indianapolis, newspaper ads and billboards congratulate the seniors, and its high schools are posting students’ pictures and plans for next year on Instagram, along with the obligatory inspirational quotes. The adults at Flagstaff High School in Arizona have placed personalized yard signs outside seniors’ homes. Students in Midland, Texas, will hold commencement events at the Big Sky Drive-In Theater — though they’ll have to stay in their cars.
"Seniors in Phoenix began arriving at schools in cars this week to pick up caps and gowns, as well as signs to put in their yards," said Chad E. Gestson, the superintendent of Phoenix’s public high schools. "Staff members wore face masks, and some put on straw hats to protect themselves from the Arizona sun as they carried signs like “The tassel was worth the hassle” and “Seniors 2020: the one where they were quarantined.”
At Bioscience High School in Phoenix, Dr. Gestson said, graduates and their families will congregate in a big parking lot, where they will watch the graduation ceremony from their cars. At the end, the vehicles will form a procession leading through a massive balloon arch, where student can pick up their diplomas and take a picture with the school mascot, a Double Helix Dragon.
“Yesterday we did a practice run,” Dr. Gestson said on Wednesday. “We had 150 of our administrators and employees go to one of our schools and practice how long it would take and what the logistics are. I was in the line myself, so I graduated yesterday!”
Former President Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey and LeBron James have all announced their own online events for seniors around the country. A video from Vanceboro, N.C., showing the principal of West Craven High School distributing yard signs to seniors emblazoned with their names and faces, has been viewed nearly 2 million times.
The principal, Tabari Wallace, said in an interview that he made the gesture — showing up at students’ houses wearing regalia and making sure they had family members around — because he wanted to create a mini-graduation for each of them on their lawns, in case the big one did not happen.
Jodie Cohen, the principal of James Madison High School, is especially in touch with the needs of this year’s seniors because her son, Aidan, is one of them. (He said that as a freshman he would run away from his mother in the halls. Now, with school happening at home, he sees her “every second.”)
One of the largest high schools in New York City with 3,800 students, James Madison sits in a stately brick building in the Madison section of southern Brooklyn. This year, Ms. Cohen said, it has seniors going to Yale and Harvard, among many other colleges, as well as students with special needs who will begin training programs for jobs in retail and other industries. Aidan will be going to Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, where he’ll play football.
Ms. Cohen said that, if it’s safe, the school would hold a barbecue for its seniors in August, where they will receive their laminated pictures and their yearbooks.
Aidan said that while he is disappointed not to have a prom and graduation, the hardest part is missing the simple day-to-day.
“When I left that last Friday, I didn’t know that was my last day, and it’s so sad to think I’ll never be a student there ever again,” he said.
Still, he said, he appreciated the pictures his mother posted around campus, which reached halfway around the property. The school also made signs to give to every graduate, so “Congratulations Aidan Class of 2020” now hangs from their porch.
Janelle Moe, another senior at the school, said that some of her teenage classmates were — parents will be shocked to hear — embarrassed to have their pictures up on the fence, but she thought it was great. “I think honestly this is one of the most creative things I’ve seen,” she said.
"The Class of 2021 is hoping for a more traditional senior year, with perhaps one new tradition added on: “Our juniors are already asking if we can do this next year,” Ms. Cohen said.
Source: https://dnyuz.com/2020/05/07/this-brooklyn-high-school-found-a-way-to-honor-its-graduating-seniors/
