By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
This spring was supposed to be the pinnacle for seniors at Bowling Green High School. Instead, their last hurrah has been silenced by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a normal year, seniors Tressa Greiner would be pushing herself in her three AP classes, Hailey would be practicing with the track team, and Bob Walters would be rehearsing for the spring musical.
Principal Jeff Devers would be planning lunch with the student of the month.
“It’s not going to happen,” he said.
The closure of all K-12 public schools in Ohio is especially bitter for seniors who have worked nearly 13 years to get to this moment.
“The fourth quarter is fun time for seniors,” Dever said. “It’s the payoff – so to speak.”
But instead of celebrating their senior status with classmates, seniors are staying at home and learning online. The already purchased prom dresses will not make an appearance on the dance floor, the athletes’ skills will go untested, the musical may go quiet, and graduation is postponed.
“One of the most difficult parts of this shutdown is what it is doing to our senior class,” Superintendent Francis Scruci wrote in a letter to parents. “We are concerned and considerate of how this is impacting them and want them to understand that we care and support them.”
For a serious student like Greiner, the thrill of sleeping in at home didn’t last long.
“I’m desperately wanting to go back,” said Greiner, who is a member of the quiz team, book club and National Honor Society. “You can’t see your friends and hang out with them.”
Greiner, who wants to go into education, misses classroom learning.
“It’s not going well,” she said of the online lessons. “You don’t get the face-to-face with the teachers.”
Greiner suspects she approaches online learning differently than many students. She tries to follow her typical school day schedule. She is disciplined with her studies, but worries about her friends who excel at procrastination.
“It’s new for everyone, cause no one knows what’s going on,” Greiner said.
She is also feeling a little cramped at home – with her sister home from school and her mom’s workplace closed due to the coronavirus.
“Everyone’s at home and it feels very claustrophobic sometimes,” she said. “It’s hard to find a quiet place to study.”
Greiner chats with friends on Facetime, but added that with her, “school comes first.”
For Trimpey, the closure of school means a cut not only to classes, but also to her athletic ambitions. She is a pole vaulter and runs middle distance in track.
“I’ve been training since November,” she said. “It’s definitely difficult knowing everything is up in the air.”
The school closure means Trimpey can no longer use the pole vaulting equipment. But she can still run – and she does so every day.
“I’m trying to keep an open mind. But it’s definitely hard to get motivated,” she said. “Sometimes it feels like it’s for nothing.”
Trimpey has been taking online classes through BGSU since she was a sophomore, and plans to major in political science and law. But some of her fellow seniors are feeling a lack of initiative for learning online.
“A lot of people are struggling to get motivated to get online,” she said.
Trimpey is also disappointed she won’t get to wear the turquoise dress she picked out for the prom.
“I had already bought my dress and ordered my corsage,” she said. “I was really looking forward to my senior prom. That’s something I’m going to miss.”
And like others, Trimpey is already coming down with cabin-fever.
“A lot of us are starting to get sick of being at home,” she said. “I definitely think this experience has made us appreciate school more.”
For Walters, it’s the loss of performing the spring musical, “Little Mermaid,” that stings the most. He is on the light crew, building sets and programming lights.
The show was intended to hit the stage in mid-April. Now, if anything, it may be morphed into a concert at some point.
“It all depends on when this blows over,” he said. “Honestly, the musical is the main concern of mine.”
It’s more than the songs and stagework – it’s the social interaction.
“I’m definitely missing it,” since rehearsals were times when Walters got to hang out with friends. “Not being able to see them, and not being able to do stuff is really weird.”
Walters, who is a regular in the community Horizon Youth Theatre, wants to major in technical theater. So the closings have hit him hard.
“All theater as of now is shut down,” he said.
But Walters has a reason to take the state’s stay-at-home order very seriously – and basically self-quarantine. His grandma, Marian Walters, fell and broke her hip last year. After going to rehab at a nursing home, she returned to her home last month, where her family takes care of her.
“My family has had to be very careful,” he said.
Walters isn’t crushed about the graduation ceremony being postponed, since he isn’t much for senior traditions.
“I think we’ll probably do something like a virtual graduation,” he said.
It’s not just the students who are disappointed about the end of their senior year.
“Oh hell yeah, this is terrible,” principal Dever said. “This is not an optimal education and social situation at all.”
Dever sympathized with students who have a lot of pent up energy at home.
“I’m going crazy already,” he said.
“I’d love to have a prom, a musical, a track season, and band concert,” Dever said. But he will have to settle for students learning online. “We’re kind of treading water.”
