Missing Milestones: A long-awaited return to in-person school for this KY senior
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Missing Milestones
An occasional series on how COVID-19 is changing life for one Kentucky High School senior.
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Editor’s Note: This is the third story in an occasional series on how COVID-19 is changing life for one Kentucky High School senior.
The first time Macy Dungan chatted with her friends in a crowded hallway between classes at Frankfort High School, most of her senior year had lapsed.
Masked, huddled together for a quick moment, the three gabbed. It was almost normal. The senior guidance counselor, Ms. Jessica Harley, who had been greeting students as they entered school for the first time in almost a year, approached the girls.
“How are you, Macy?” Ms. Harley asked. “Are you ready for this?”
FHS, like many schools across Kentucky up to this point, had relied almost exclusively on virtual learning to avoid the risk of student-teacher, or student-student transmission of COVID-19, which had sieged Kentucky for 11 months at this point, in early February. Like many of her peers around the state, Macy had not actually attended a class inside her high school since March 17, 2020.
As a result, the 17-year-old watched as many ritualistic social events she’d anticipated since she was a freshman come and go without much fanfare, diluted by a pandemic that pushed people apart, not together: fall and winter homecomings, senior night, and the much-anticipated first day of in-person school. Instead of brushing shoulders in hallways, scribbling notes in class, and taking their seats in the cafeteria next to friends, students opened their laptops alone from bedrooms, couches and kitchen tables.
But finally, on this Monday, February 8, Macy, along with about 40 percent of Frankfort High students, stepped back in the classroom for the first time. And her teachers were determined to resurrect a first-day tradition, for real this time.
Midway through her first period — JAG, short for Jobs for American Graduates — seniors were called down to the school’s auditorium. Inside, no more than two members of their families were sitting every other row, masked, socially-distanced, waiting to clap for their students as they walked across the stage.
In a non-coronavirus year, families are replaced by underclassmen for this ritual, known at FHS as the “senior clap-in,” which signals the official commencement of a new school year. Principal Tyler Reed led the tradition on the first virtual day, back in late August, but coordinating a unified round of applause over Google hangouts isn’t the same.
Just before 8:30 a.m., Principal Reed wrangled the senior crowd as they amassed behind the auditorium.
“Alright seniors, listen up real quick: we will open up these doors once I announce you, you’ll go through, funnel around the curtains into the seats,” he shouted over the low hum of chatter. “Keep your masks on the whole time. Make sure there’s a seat between you. You can’t sit right next to your friends, can’t hold hands, any of that.”
Inside the auditorium, Principal Reed took the stage before proud parents. With relief in his voice, which was muffled by his mask, he signaled their entrance: “I know it’s long overdue, but it’s my honor to introduce the Frankfort High class of 2021,” he said, to claps, hoots and hollers.
Once the students were seated, he assured them teachers had longed for this moment for months.
“I know it’s been a long road to get you in the building,” he said. “We’ve wanted you here all year. I know you’ve missed out on some of your experiences, but it definitely has presented an opportunity for you to grow, and you all have done that.”
Then, a sobering reminder: despite the challenges students faced this school year — attending almost an entire year of high school by themselves — graduation requirements had not changed, he said.
For the remaining three months, students could choose to return in person or stay virtual. “Have that discussion with your parents, but please make the wise decision that’s in the best interest of your education,” he urged.
Risks of returning
It may seem obvious that after almost a year of virtual learning, students would jump at the chance to come back to school. But it’s a complicated choice, especially for seniors, who have other extracurriculars they might want to prioritize. Returning to school runs the risk of virus exposure, and Macy doesn’t want her last season of softball interrupted by a third bout of quarantine.
But she understands it’s out of her control; everything is at the mercy of the pandemic, which is why, “I don’t get my hopes up,” she said.
After the assembly, Macy walked upstairs to Calculus, to sit in a classroom with three other students. They could sit wherever they wanted, Ms. Melissa Crosby told them. “All I ask is that you all don’t jump around from seat to seat, so I don’t have to clean more than one.”
On the dry-erase board, written in red marker, she had scrawled a list of “Covid in Class Expectations,” including, “Always wear mask!” and “Anyone leaving class MUST be escorted!”
Ms. Crosby, who was proctoring an exam, was slated to receive her second dose of the vaccine a few days later, like more than three-quarters of FHS staff.
That was a step Principal Reed wanted his teachers to take before all grade levels returned to the building, he said. Many FHS teachers worked the day after their second doses, plagued with low fevers and cold-like symptoms (reactions to the vaccine) — a testament to how much they wanted to be in the building.
Ms. Crosby was one of them.
“Alright lovelies, everybody passed the quiz, so we’re moving forward to chapter 3. Woohoo! It’s all about derivatives. You know how to do them,” she said.
While Macy and her classmates settled into second period, school staff with mechanical sanitizing guns wandered the halls, spraying disinfectant on surfaces, doorknobs and stair railings.
‘It’s making me want to talk to people again’
Even though students were physically welcomed back into the building, many of the casual interactions that color their high school experience won’t be.
Not only were students sitting physically apart in classrooms, no more than two students were allowed in a bathroom at once; the school’s stairways at either end of the building were one-way, to smooth crowd flow; trips to the bathroom or the office during class required an adult escort; and students were discouraged from clustering in hallways between classes.
Add masks, and the cumulative effect crimps students’ ability to meet new friends or connect with old ones — a harsh reality after a year of seclusion.
“It’s creating isolation, even in the classroom,” Ms. Harley, the guidance counselor, said the following week, after she’d recovered from her second dose and had a chance to observe students’ behavior. “I’m finding they’re even more timid to ask questions, or to build those relationships.”
Teachers and staff at FHS, like others across the state and country, are grappling with how to keep students engaged in an environment where disconnecting is too easy.
“I think our students are having a hard time seeing when their life as they know it comes back, and I’m not fully for sure that it does come back for some,” said Ms. Harley, who has had to teach more students breathing exercises to handle heavier loads of stress.
“I say, ‘Let’s back up: What can we handle today? What do we have control of, what do we not have control of?’ That conversation has had to go even deeper this year.”
The need to complete school work almost becomes peripheral. “You take that fear, you take that isolation and it’s hard to find the motivation to put in the effort for school,” she said.
Even for Macy, who’s well-established socially, in extracurriculars, and in her studies, has developed her own tendencies toward social isolation.
But, “coming back, it’s making me want to talk to people again,” she said. “I want as many people here as possible, just so that it’s more normal.”
For Macy and her friends, the crescendo of “normal” would be getting an in-person prom and graduation ceremony in May, which is something school staff are trying to make a reality. “What’s happening is happening. That’s how I’m looking at it,” Macy said. “But graduation and prom? I have high expectations for those.”
To Be Continued: Our Missing Milestones series will continue with occasional installments throughout the 2020-21 school year.
This story was originally published March 19, 2021 at 9:50 AM.
