Grad Bash Cancellation Among Changes to Class of 2021’s Senior Year

The Class of 2021 has been forced to adapt to changes due to COVID-19. Along with adapting to the new situation, there have been many factors in play for their last year. As the year progressed, more and more students have been wary about how the school year would look like and what changes would occur. Entering the third quarter one of many questions seniors have had on their mind is, will there be any senior events like prom or graduation? The answer to that is no one knows.

A cloud of uncertainty is looming over everyone’s head, being unaware as to how better or worse the pandemic will be next week or next month.

The Class of 2021 Executive Board and Student Government claims to have many events in store to make the class of 2021’s senior year memorable more than it has been. Some events that SGA has planned is Homecoming Court. Like most years, students had the opportunity to vote for a Lord and Lady, a Duchess, a Prince and Princess, and finally, a Homecoming King and Queen. The winners were announced and then featured during the Homecoming pep rally. The pep rally was recorded and broadcasted online for the whole school to see.

Another exciting tradition SGA has maintained this year is the famous Homecoming Spirit Week. Similar to years past students dress up according to the theme of the day. The themes for this year are Celebrity Day, Hero vs, Villain Day, Out of this World Day, Back to the Future Day, and the Ferguson traditional Blackout Friday. 

Other emblematic events such as graduation or prom are more difficult to plan. Events such as graduation, Grad Bash, Prom, and Senior Picnic are still in the planning stage due to the changing circumstances the COVID-19 pandemic has brought upon us.

All events are subjected to CDC guidelines, which Miami-Dade County Public Schools are also following. Spaces will be larger and fewer people will be able to attend physical events due to social distancing. Some sanitation procedures that will take place in such events will be hand washing stations, hand sanitizer stations, extra masks available to students and faculty, travel pattern guidelines, and custodians will be present to clean commonly used areas to prevent any contamination. Indoor locations will need improved ventilation. The Class of 2021 Board and SGA are following guidelines set by the Miami-Dade School District, CDC, WHO, national, state, and local authorities. More information on those guidelines can be found on http://reopening.dadeschools.net/. 

Luckily for seniors, our board has been meeting monthly to discuss physical and virtual plans through Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

“The Class of 2021 is going through a unique senior experience during this very different year. In the society we live in now, we have to embrace change. I encourage others to embrace change and to stay strong. We all expected to have our traditional school events without any problems, though we are living in a different time,” said Class of 2021 president, Edward Franco. “I want every student to know that no matter what happens, the John A. Ferguson Class of 2021 Executive Board and I are working hard to make our Senior Year the best it can be. We can’t predict the future, so we can’t guarantee our traditional events. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are pivoting in a new direction of event planning as we have to include COVID-19 guidelines for the safety of all students.”

 One of the first events the board is focusing on is Senior Picnic. They are currently in the process of planning a modern and innovative way of holding an exciting Grad Bash/Senior Picnic event. As for Grad Bash, the school district is currently not allowing physical field trips, except for the purpose of athletics.

“At the moment, Grad Bash to Universal Orlando has been canceled. If anything changes, we will inform our students,” said Franco.

Prom is also still in the planning process but it’s likely that this year’s prom will look unlike any other. The board is currently organizing the event with the hotel location. SGA and the Class of 2021 Board are planning different kinds of models for prom night such as an outdoor venue, drive-thru prom celebration, a smaller capacity for indoor venues, and more. Some ideas that will take place in the event of a physical prom occurring are social distanced seating, individually served meals, and a show or performance that might take the place of dancing on the dance floor. 

There are however many exciting events that will take place throughout the year. One is a Senior Game Night, where trivia and raffle prizes could be awarded through games in real-time. Earlier in the year seniors already had a Senior Crown Contest. Seniors celebrated their last first day of school in style by sharing photos with their crowns on social media platforms such as Instagram. Another significant moment that is being organized is the Senior Panoramic. It may be held through Zoom in multiple sessions where seniors can dress up and pose in their “Brady Bunch” square for a screenshot. The full edited Ferguson Senior Class Zoom “Brady Bunch” inspired Panoramic will be available to all students!

As for the graduation ceremony, many details still need to be decided as to whether or not the event will take place physically, virtually, or in a hybrid manner. 

Principal Villalobos informs students on the current state of the ceremony, “Right now I think the state, as well as every district in Miami-Dade County, is pretty much on a holding pattern to see what happens. I know that obviously, we’ll have a graduation, how it will be if it will be similar to the 2020 graduation, which was done virtually. It’s still to be seen.  We do not have any direction as of yet.” 

Hybrid graduation has never been planned before so that is another option that needs to be researched. As much uncertainty as there is for graduation and other events, we must continue our journey with a peaceful mind, knowing that the COVID-19 vaccine is developed.

 “There’s no doubt that graduation is huge, this is why I do what I do because I love graduation. I love to see you guys move on and have the success that you had here at Ferguson Senior but, your health is obviously first and your family’s health,” said Principal Villalobos. 

 Throughout this year there have been many opportunities to fundraise for the senior class such as Edda’s Cakes and the Chipotle Fundraiser. There are going to be more fundraising events in the future so keep an eye out! 

“We encourage all students to help and be involved in the making of these events by helping fundraise to make these events more affordable and possible during these challenging circumstances. Fundraising is the key to our senior year,” said Franco.

Many seniors, like Isabella Roberts, feel differently about fundraising, “I feel senior fundraising is a scam. So far there hasn’t been the slightest hint that we are still having senior activities. Graduation is fast approaching and we still don’t know if that’s in person. All I want is to walk across that stage instead of the McDonald’s drive-thru that resembled last year’s graduation. Anyways I sold the two cakes with the hope of attending a senior event. On the bright side I have two cakes to stress eat.” 

Others stated their view of the situation like Joice Perez claiming, “I feel as if senior fundraising this year is a bit pointless. Seniors can’t really have any events due to Covid-19 regulations therefore in my perspective I feel as if there isn’t really a point…We need to put restrictions on certain activities and such so we can be finished with this situation faster.”

Even though students do feel this way, we must persevere through the year and have faith that this year will be the best it possibly can. The health of students, faculty, and families is the number one priority of all and with the vaccine out––there is still hope. 

“Senior year will not be wasted. We will figure out something to do and we are planning stuff to do and no matter what happens, whether it be virtually, physically, or in a hybrid manner, something will happen and events will happen and something will be given back to the students, to all seniors who participate who are willing to involve themselves in the senior class events no matter what happens something will happen. In our case, we have fundraised to this point and I am very glad to say that we have fundraised plenty from our senior class fundraiser and what we have fundraised in previous years,” said Franco in defense of senior fundraising efforts.

The school year started online until the school adapted a hybrid mode where students had the choice to attend online or physically in October. This change had some students coming back physically to school, but the majority stayed at home to attend school.

In a social lens, seniors can view this year as an emotional downfall with senior Rachel Saurez stating, “I definitely feel demotivated. Going physically to school helped with that but it’s hard to stay motivated without all the fun stuff to look forward to. I also feel more isolated which makes perfect sense, since I can’t go out as much as I used to pre-pandemic. I stay in contact with my friends as much as possible virtually but it isn’t the same.” 

“I am currently enrolled in online school. I was debating going back physically but thought it was too much of a risk. I wouldn’t want to get my household sick,” said Joice Perez, a senior at Ferguson. “There are days in which online is easier and other days in which it isn’t. It definitely isn’t something that one can get used to immediately. Personally, I learn better physically which is why this situation is difficult for me.” 

Meanwhile, many from the junior class have noted how the beginning of the school year began and are hoping next school year will look differently. “I would be devastated if my senior year started like this,” stated junior Alexandra Otero. “I’m starting to come to terms with it but I really wish it wouldn’t because I had plans to take road trips with friends, visit college campuses, being in cheer, attending games and homecoming, and such. It just kind of changed everything about what senior year could have been for us.”

During this year, seniors have been struggling with surviving a pandemic while attending online school and getting good grades. Senior year is still an important time since the first-semester grades are sent to colleges and seniors had to make sure their GPA would not drop while adapting to online school.

“It’s really about using free time in between classes and lunch,” said senior Isabella Roberts. “Since I’m MSO I have a little extra time that physical students don’t. I believe it’s been easier to maintain my GPA because of that. I also no longer travel or go to social gatherings so that frees up even more time.” As many seniors have been taking precautions to not go out, time management and organization have been key factors in their academic success while in a pandemic. However, this may look different for many students this year. 

Along with grades, the testing season was another concern for the senior class who worried about how it might look this year. Last school year, exams were either canceled or reformatted for online testing. While IB May exams were canceled with scores relying on internal and external assessments, AP testing developed an adapted online test that received harsh criticism from students for its technical issues and structures.

Therefore, many students across the nation believed this testing method to be unreliable for college credit. FSA and EOC testing, Florida’s state testing, started in December last year to make up exams in order to graduate. This year, AP and IB testing is set to continue in May physically with CDC guidelines in place and could potentially change.

Other essential tests include SAT and ACT, which are highly important for seniors every year to send to the colleges they are applying to.

Many SAT test sessions were canceled during the early stages of quarantine but were able to resume at the beginning of this school year.

“I was able to take the in-school SAT and the November SAT,” said senior Rachel Suarez. “It felt the same as usual, just with a mask on. I definitely felt discouraged to try my best by November because I had declared test-optional on almost all of my college applications. I was able to get a score I was satisfied in October so I didn’t feel too bad about scoring lower in November.”

This school year, many colleges became test-optional which could be a beneficial advantage to a student’s application if they could not take the test due to the pandemic. The idea of test-optional could potentially increase the pool of applicants and make it more competitive this year.

Another concern was college applications, which is considered one of the most stressful tasks for seniors to complete. In past years, college applications had students being guided by their counselors and teachers. This year, it had through online calls and emails which was less meaningful.

“College applications have been the most stressful part of the school year,” continued Rachel Suarez. “I definitely felt very anxious because I haven’t visited any colleges, and in part because of my test-optional status. I don’t know how not sending a score will affect my application even if the colleges say it won’t affect my score.”

All counselors are making sure to reach out to students and make college applications are easy as possible, like Cristina Diez, our CAP advisor, has done through communication means such as Scoir.

The transition has been difficult for many, especially seniors because it has taken a mental toll on the students. Students have been struggling with adapting but mainly with accepting the fact that normalcy will not come back easy.

“This school year can be summed up in one word: boring,” claimed Isabella Roberts. “It’s a monotonous routine being an MSO student. As best said by my language arts teacher, ‘one day painfully melds into the next’. I haven’t felt much of a mental or emotional change besides a lack of excitement regarding school and education.”

Students have been coping with mental health issues through sharing their feelings with their friends, taking up new hobbies, and communicating online through social media. Miami-Dade County Public Schools even continued the online mental health course from last school year. 

However, there is still a consistent struggle to be motivated during these times. “There are definitely some days where I’m not up for anything and I find it hard to log into class,” stated Joice Perez. “In the beginning, you could say I was more hopeful that everything would fix itself and we would be able to go back to school. Now reality has hit me and it is extremely obvious that it might not happen.”

As students go to school online and physically, everything revolves around being connected online––even for physical students. Many seniors have to rely on Zoom and Teams for their classes and making sure they are logged into the platform with an SSO login. However, even for their counselor meetings and college interviews, they must constantly use Zoom or other online call platforms, making this a very non-traditional year for everyone but especially for seniors performing different tasks for their last year in high school. 

Despite the immense challenges that the Class of 2021 has had to endure, Principal Villalobos continues to encourage us all, “This class and last year’s class are definitely going to learn a lot and [have] learned a lot from this. And [this] will make them stronger, [it] will make you better. And the fortitude that you will derive from this will ultimately give you the strength to be even that much more successful. So that’s what I believe. 

Although you have missed a variety of senior events, although it doesn’t feel like what you’ve worked your whole academic career for from elementary to middle to high school and see the real high school environment––take fruition and enjoy that crown and joy, you know that last year, filled with memories and experiences. I would say that it’s not easy. But again, from this, I know that they will be stronger. They will be more knowledgeable in what the expectations in such crisis affords us, and that they will even be greater people for it.”