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80,000 State high school seniors feeling loss of closure, traditions with pandemic school shutdowns

In a time of awkward social distance, Governor Inslee's order to close schools for the reminder of the academic year left high school seniors with a sudden profound sense of permanent loss.

“I don’t know how to feel, because there’s not really a way to describe the situation that we’re in,” said Skyline High School senior Kelly Quinn. “I didn’t realize how much I’d miss things like going to class.”

In Washington state, about 80,000 high school seniors are now realizing their rites of passage like having yearbooks signed, are being replaced with a strange feeling of being suddenly imprisoned with unsettling freedom by being locked out.

Some are facing their heartbreak with humor, knowing their classes, commencements, and their senior year social lives may now only exist online because of the pandemic-driven safety orders of social distancing.

"The last time I went to school, I didn't think it would be the last time I went to school, so I didn't get to say bye to everyone," said Hailey Mayes from Bonney Lake High School, who thought of losses of events like the senior prom. She was working to raise her GPA to a perfect 4.0.

“I’m just mainly feeling really upset and frustrated,” she said. “It feels like something I worked for 12, 13 years of my whole life, is all being taken away in an instant.”

Skyline High School senior Megan Murray grew up in Malaysia, and after high school graduation in the US, she planned to move to England for college.

“I never really thought that I would go to an American high school,” she said. But I ended up moving here, at the start of freshman year. Even though the last three and a half years have been amazing and I’m so grateful for it, it sucks that the ending’s been cut short."

One of the seniors navigating these uncharted waters is my son Nick, who regrets not knowing the last day — in mid-March — would be the final opportunity to share closure with classmates he's known since first grade.

"We were supposed to have the opportunity to say goodbye to everyone," he said. "We were supposed to have the opportunity to revel in those last days of high school, say goodbye to friends we might not see for years, teachers for the last time."

But some say the perspective of history will show the rites of passage of the class of 2020 were pushed aside for a noble reason: to preserve public health.

“Although I’m missing all these experiences as a senior, I think it’s worth it to save a life,” said Skyline senior Demetre Teodosiadis. "That’s more important than any memory that I’d have.''