The following is a guest column by class of 2020 David Starr Jordan High School graduate Jennifer Lopez.
For many of us, the year 2020 was one of the hardest years of our lives.
For me and some of my peers, it meant juggling many things on top of school like taking care of my siblings and making sure they were fed and paying attention in class while also trying my hardest to complete my own assignments.
Without the motivation of my friends I struggled a lot at first. It was hard to focus with distractions like kids playing or yelling next door. I also had to work after school and then go home to finish my homework and make sure my siblings were ready for the next day.
Sometimes, it could be really draining trying to manage all these things. But I stayed strong and pushed through in order to graduate, despite having all our senior activities taken away by the COVID pandemic, including an in-person graduation ceremony.
When it was our time to graduate, my classmates and I received a pre-recorded YouTube video announcing our names and a drive-thru graduation rushed by staff trying to move us quickly through.
It was a great experience for some of us, but what about the families that had no car and therefore could not participate in the drive-thru? Some of those families had to wait until everything was over in order to get an empty diploma frame.
Just like the class of 2021, the class of 2020 worked really hard to graduate considering the conditions we were all in. A post last week from Jordan High’s Instagram account congratulating this year’s class stated in part, “you pressed on and made it happen. Jordan is so proud of you!”
We also “pressed on,” trying to comprehend and fully process what was happening around us. I understand that due to the circumstances from a year ago we were not able to have an in-person graduation, but as I started to see high schools across the state allowing their classes of 2020 to return for a proper graduation ceremony, I hoped we would be honored with similar ceremonies as well.
For example, the Downey Unified School District held joint graduation ceremonies for its classes of 2020 and 2021. Buckingham High School in Vacaville finally held an in-person graduation ceremony for its class of 2020 this May.
When I messaged Jordan High School’s Instagram page a few weeks after the Long Beach Unified School District announced in-person graduation ceremonies, asking if they had something similar planned for the class of 2020, the response was, “we do not have anything planned at this time.” And they were right, nothing was planned for us, not at this time, not in tomorrow’s time and maybe not in the future.
One of the many things school taught us to do was speak up for what we want and that is what we are doing right now. We are standing up for ourselves for not receiving a proper way to end our high school journey.
The day after the class of 2021 held its graduation last week, I emailed some LBUSD board members, my council representative and even the school principal to ask if anything could be done to receive an in-person ceremony. I have yet to receive a response. We even started a hashtag campaign (#jhsclassof2020reunited) trying to bring awareness.
Now I am taking this publicly to make our voices heard. It may be too late for the class of 2020 to be recognized for our hard work, for closing one of the hardest chapters of our lives, but I can only hope school leaders listen to their students next time.
