In April, I began hearing about how disappointed the high school seniors were about missing out on prom and graduation because of the coronavirus. When my editor suggested I write this story, I wasn’t feeling it. These ceremonies felt trivial to me compared to the devastation and despair the pandemic was creating. But talking to the teens in this story totally changed my mind. It makes me tear up even now remembering how the class of 2020 described not just a loss of tradition but the loss of closure — the inability to say goodbye to their friends, their teachers and essentially their childhood.
— Danyelle Khmara
Tessa DeConcini, a high school senior, poses with her prom dress and graduation cap at University High School. Because of the coronavirus, DeConcini, like many in the class of 2020, could be missing out on prom as well as graduation.
Tessa DeConcini and her friends joke about going to prom many years from now with their future sons.
They’re referring to a joke circulated on Twitter long before anyone heard the word coronavirus. Photos of sons taking their moms to prom because the women missed out as teens.
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“That Twitter trope fits in a more comedic and sad way now,” says the University High senior. “We are experiencing something that nobody else, not our parents or our grandparents or anybody else, is going to experience in the same way because we’re missing all of these super-significant milestones.”
The coronavirus pandemic has closed public schools across Arizona for the rest of the school year. Tucson’s class of 2020 headed to spring break a few weeks ago not knowing it would be their last time on campus. They’re facing the prospect of no prom, no graduation ceremonies and no saying goodbye — an abrupt ending to 13 years of schooling.
