After months of waiting for their closing moment together, South Jersey’s high school Class of 2020 finally celebrated this week the accomplishments of more than 12 years of education.
“Here’s to the future lawyers, teachers, politicians, police officers, business executives, doctors, nurses and more that sit with us now as the Class of 2020. You all have so much promise to do amazing things,” Ocean City High School senior Haley Stanks told her classmates Thursday at an otherwise empty Carey Field as parents watched a livestream from screens set up just outside the stadium.
In-person ceremonies were hosted this week by more than 20 high schools in Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland and southern Ocean counties per Gov. Phil Murphy’s executive order allowing them to begin Monday, as social distancing restrictions were eased amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
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With maximum capacity limits set to 500 people, many schools had to decide whether and how they could hold a graduation ceremony.
Middle Township hosted the first in-person ceremony in the region Tuesday for its nearly 200 seniors. Attendees filled the bleachers but were spaced 6 feet apart, marked by black tape. Superintendent Dave Salvo joked, “If anybody ever asks you after today how many people were here, it’s 499 people.”
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In Egg Harbor Township on Wednesday morning, more than 300 seniors chose graduating as a class without an audience and sat on the field facing empty bleachers as they collected their diplomas. The remaining students returned later in the day with family for a more intimate recognition.
Egg Harbor Township Superintendent Kim Gruccio recounted that she began the school year with an EHT-themed parody of the Netflix show “Stranger Things,” and apologized for not knowing how truly strange things would turn out this year.
As noted by students and administrators in their speeches this week, the majority of the Class of 2020 was born just after Sept. 11, 2001, was raised in the age of social media, experienced adolescence in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008, terrorism and school shootings, and was preparing to enter the world of adulthood amid a global pandemic and a social justice movement.
In addition, each school had its own share of hardships and tragedies over the past four years.
At Pinelands Regional, the graduating class never spent less than two years in the senior high school building as asbestos issues caused it to close for their entire junior year and a few months of their sophomore year.
MIDDLE TOWNSHIP — Mayor Tim Donohue told the graduates gathered Tuesday at Memorial Field that their final high school moment was a graduation and a reunion at the same time.
The senior class finally returned to the newly renovated building in September, but that, too, was cut short due to the pandemic.
At Pleasantville High School, students endured a shooting at their playoff football game against Camden that took the life of a 10-year-old Atlantic City boy and shook the community. Just as they began to emotionally recover, the pandemic shut down schools.
“We didn’t let the outcome of the football game define us, and neither will we let this pandemic define us,” Pleasantville valedictorian Lidia Orellana told her class Thursday. “Many of us are feeling mixed emotions during this time, but let’s put those aside and reminisce on the memories, hardships and good times that we’ve made over the course of our four years, especially our senior year.”
The theme of this year’s graduation was perseverance, as nearly all of the student speakers applauded their classmates for their ability to overcome adversity.
“Do you guys remember that feeling of walking through the metal detectors for the first time as we entered the building for our very first day of high school? Do you guys remember when the gym floor exploded, and we couldn’t have a regular gym class for the rest of sophomore year?” Sheikh Nahiyan, Atlantic City High School valedictorian, asked her classmates Wednesday. “Every day at the high school became the ‘new normal.’ ... We are faced with the threat of a ‘new normal’ yet again — but there is no other graduating class in this country better suited to tackle the next step and take on the ‘new normal’ that awaits us. After all, we have done it before — not once, not twice, but more times than I can count.”
