Seniors Graduation Canceled Due to Coronavirus

The coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has caused Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District to announce a mandatory school closure effective immediately on March 13. Based on the results of a survey for seniors, Principal Brent Kuykendall announced that the district will prioritize a live graduation ceremony on a postponed date. Despite these complications, many seniors like senior Elissa Luce hope that Peninsula will still hold a live graduation ceremony.

“To me, graduation is a celebration for all the hard work I have done for the past 

four years of high school,” Luce said. “You only graduate from high school once, and I have always looked forward to throwing our caps in the air to [celebrate our high school experience] surrounded by my friends.”

Along with Luce, senior Jieun Seo is still hopeful to celebrate graduation. Seo had planned on making graduation as memorable as possible for her, by having many family members fly in to celebrate with her. 

“Graduation is a big celebration before [moving on to] the next big step of one’s life,” Seo said. “It represents the hard work one [dedicates to their education] over the last 13 years.” 

Senior Mara Mahoney believes graduation is a milestone of all her hard work in high school and moving forward to college. Like Seo, Mahoney had previously made plans to have her family fly in to celebrate her graduation. Graduation is the senior event that Mahoney has been looking forward to the most.

“Losing graduation [would be] quite devastating, it [has been] an event I have been dreaming about ever since I was a little girl,” Mahoney said. “I could not have imagined that my class would not get the chance to experience it. Although there are more important losses happening, [the thought] that we may lose graduation has still been difficult for my peers and I to comprehend.”

Although it is out of ASB’s hands and it is unsure that graduation will happen due to the COVID-19 quarantine, ASB is trying their best to ensure a graduation that the seniors will be able to attend. Currently a survey is being hosted for the seniors to decide if they would rather have a virtual graduation on June 11 or have a traditional graduation ceremony mid-July. 

“[As of now], ASB is working very hard to ensure a graduation for seniors to attend,” Mahoney said. “Under the current circumstances however, if quarantine continues [past June], there will be a supplemental graduation so the seniors can get the closure they deserve.”