Annual Events at Peninsula Canceled Due to Campus Closure
On March 12, Peninsula announced the closure of its campus until further notice in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, resulting in many school events being postponed or canceled. This sudden closure came as a shock to many students, as they were looking forward to the events that were canceled. These events include World Language Week performances, sports nationals, class competitions, Link Crew’s Freshfest, prom and graduation.
The first week of the school closure occurred during the annual World Language Week, where students from each language class performed cultural dances and skits in the amphitheater. The Spanish classes were scheduled to perform on Friday; however, they could not share their routines with the other students due to school being closed the day before. Senior Julian Gomez, who is in Advanced Placement Spanish 4, practiced his class dance with his peers for three months prior to the performance, but was disappointed to find out that the campus was closed the evening before the final day of World Language Week performances. This prevented him from showcasing the dance he spent a long time preparing for.
“I was looking forward to having my abuelita come and watch me dance that Friday,” Gomez said. “I am so sad that she will never see me perform [that piece] because I practiced so much at home.”
Another long-awaited event for students was the West Coast Elite Dance Nationals at the Long Beach Convention Center, where Peninsula’s Varsity Dance and Coed Choreo teams were planning to compete on March 21-22. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak; however, the competition was forced to be canceled for the year without the possibility of it being rescheduled. The Varsity Dance team prepared and practiced their routines frequently since September for this competition, and Coed Choreo prepared since August. The teams planned to celebrate a successful competition season by attending Nationals. Junior Mariela Martinez is a member of the Varsity Dance team and looked forward to making memories on and off the dance floor with her team at the last competition of the season.
“The cancellation of Nationals makes me so sad and disappointed,” Martinez said. “I realized that I took competing and dancing with such an amazing team for granted and am saddened that I cannot dance with any of the seniors again.”
Link Crew’s Freshfest was another planned event on April 13-17; however, the event was moved online. The fourth period Link Crew commissioners and leaders brainstormed activities for the week with Link Crew Adviser and English 2 Honors teacher Beckie Dibble. The freshman dance was supposed to have bouncers, prize games, an In-n-Out truck and an escape room with laser tag. To compensate for loss of this activity on campus, the Link Crew Instagram posted daily challenges for freshmen to complete. The theme was called “Level Up,” so students completed these challenges based on famous video games, such as baking something in representation of Cooking Mama and sharing artwork in rendition of Pictionary.
“We will definitely be recycling the theme we were going to use for next year’s Freshfest,” senior Link Crew leader Chrislyn Tseng said.
Every senior ends their final year with a graduation to honor their hard work in high school and their progression into the next chapter of their lives. However, this is another event that is postponed for Peninsula’s class of 2020 by a statement from California governor Gavin Newsom suggesting that California schools remain closed through the rest of the school year. June 11 was the original planned date for the ceremony, and it now may be rescheduled to July, August or even during Winter Break of the 2020-21 school year. The decision to try to have a live ceremony was based on a poll from the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District that was sent to all students and parents in Palos Verdes regarding options for rescheduling prom and graduation. When questioned about the choice of an online ceremony, senior Zoe Zapanta looked forward to the appreciation of her high school journey with the traditional graduation ceremony because she is the first person in her family to attend a four-year university after high school. Zapanta feels as though all students have lost something from the school’s closure, and she personally is upset with the idea of losing an in-person graduation ceremony.
“I strongly feel that if our school decides to compensate the class of 2020 with virtual graduation, it would be disrespectful to all the hard work myself and others have put in the last four years,” Zapanta said. “The canceling of events is the unfortunate reality that students have to face, and it is upsetting to those who have worked hard to not end up getting important high school experiences.”
