As a part of the social distancing requirements, school systems and colleges have shut down all classes for the rest of the school year. Governor Tate Reeves recently announced that all schools in Mississippi will remain closed throughout the rest of the school year, which includes Union Public Schools. Furthermore, most colleges have also moved online for the remainder of the semester. This, however, does not mean that summer has started early. Our seniors have been robbed of their senior year, and our college students must finish the semester on their own. They both deserve our support.
For Union High School’s class of 2020, this year was supposed to be their final year of high school, and they were supposed to experience things like senior prom, end-of-the-year banquets, and a graduation ceremony. Usually, at the end of the spring semester, prom is held, and seniors enjoy one last fun night with their friends before graduating. They also experience end-of-the-year banquets where they receive various accolades for their years of hard work at school. Finally, their childhood ends with a graduation ceremony; they receive their diplomas and go out into the world. The class of 2020 will never experience these things, and after working almost all of their lives in school, they deserve this as well. However, we cannot control the pandemic. and because the pandemic robbed the class of 2020 of these experiences, they deserve our love and support.
Although the class of 2020 has received some support on social media, another group of students has received no support at all. When colleges closed, college students abruptly went home and shifted to online classes in an extremely short amount of time. Speaking from personal experience, this means college students have an increased workload in addition to teaching themselves the majority of the content. This is not an extended summer break. Parents should not assume that their college students are home for the summer and that their students are here to do errands for them. Not only do we have a ton of work to complete each week, we are also currently enduring the most difficult part of the semester. In addition to this, many college students will receive no refund for the rest of the semester, and we are not eligible for the federal stimulus checks. To say this bluntly, college students are struggling right now. Everyone should support our college students during these trying times.
Both the class of 2020 and college students have been forced to endure conditions that they could not have imagined possible as the start of the spring semester. Although we cannot control the coronavirus pandemic, we can support our seniors and college students and attempt to make their lives a little easier. To the class of 2020, Union celebrates your achievements and honors you for all you have done. To college students, Union supports you, and we know you can survive the remainder of the semester. To everyone, this pandemic will not last forever. Eventually, this will pass, and our lives will all return to normal.
