Fact Checked Source:
Terry Nguyen, "School closures and virtual graduations/How coronavirus has affected students’ senior year"

Looking Deeper: Five Facts Checked

The pandemic has forced campuses to abruptly cancel their spring terms in a matter of days, making the last moments of the academic year especially bittersweet.

I wanted to look into this fact due to the statements that this was an abrupt cancelation that occurred within a few days, as I would expect that students would have seen this coming. However according to Washington Post's article, most students didn't realize that their last day of school was going to be their last which means that this was a very abrupt cancellation for most students.

 ...the pandemic threatens to impact several meaningful milestones — events like graduation, prom, grad night, and other end-of-year celebrations that would’ve brought together family and friends before they move onto the next chapter of their lives.

I, personally, would expect for schools to postpone graduations and or proms as there are very important days for high school seniors to appreciate all the hard work that they have done. After fact checking, I have found out that some schools have postponed graduations and proms, while some have rumors or trying to hold them online over zoom, which in my opinion is not as effective. 

But the next day, we were told that we couldn’t go to school until the end of March and that date has now been extended until April 24. 

This is an older article and when this interview was taken Ashley Jones, a high school senior in Orange County, California stated that her school would be closed until April 24th. After checking this, this school along with most schools in the nation have been canceled for the entire semester.  

...it hasn’t been discussed yet whether graduation, which is on the third week of May, is off.

For Cyle Mendoza-Ramirez, a high school senior in Monterey County, California, they have not announced whether or not graduation would even occur. Although I could not check for this specific school, most other schools in California have canceled graduation, as stated in the Washington Post article, due to the fact that it is not probable that that many students will be able to gather in one area any time soon.

We host a big choir show every year, and the program financially needs it since we invest money in costumes, lighting, a band, and sound. We spend all that money before we even sell a ticket, so if the show is off, then that’ll be a huge financial hit for the program and what it does next year.

This fact came from a fellow student named Ashley Jones who was concerned about the program that she took a part in high school and was worried about the funding due to major losses due to COVID. Just as many small businesses have lost major money, many school's special programs have to however the government is trying to send funds for these losses even though it many not be efficient. 

Analysis Essay:

Milestones Seize to Exist: High School Seniors Perspective on COVID-19

As a freshman in college, I have many friends that are high school seniors who are going through a rough patch during this time. Many are struggling with the fact that their prom, graduation and other events are canceled and it has been difficult for them to pick what college they want to attend next year due to the fact that there are no tours available putting more stress on these students, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The piece written by Terry Nguyen in the VOX media piece highlights the issues the high school seniors are going through by successfully interviewing seniors and recording their views directly. 

These interviews include perspectives of different students such as Alexis Bamford to whom,

Graduation, for our school and my family, is a huge deal. It’s such a universal milestone, and everyone I know has graduated and walked the stage.

She feels as though graduation is a legacy especially for her school and family and she is missing out on an important part of a student’s life. Although there have been rumors of Skype or zoom graduations, this doesn’t give the same experience for her or her fellow peers. She has missed out on wearing her graduation dress, and prom dress and has even had to cancel her grad party due to the COVID pandemic. She values these important milestones in her life which have all been taken away from her and she feels as though there is not much she can do about it. 

According to Cyle Mendoza-Ramirez,

It felt like a really hard and sudden break-up when I was told this was my last day of classes, of seeing most of my peers. 

Students like him wished there was a way to remember their times in high school that was cut short as they have lost so much such as their prom, senior all night parties, graduation, graduation parties, senior nights honoring school athletes, honors nights, senior pranks and so much more. (Heim 2020) These students feel as though everything has been taken away from them and giving them nothing is not fair. 

As proven in the scholarly article by Pascoe, Hetrick, & Parker which conducted a study on stress level in students, high school students have been found to already have an increased level of stress placed on them which results in reduced academic achievement, decreased motivation and increases the risk of school dropout. (Pascoe, Hetrick, & Parker 2020)These additional stresses can cause these students to lose sight of their future. Some seniors have already decided to sacrifice their education and go to community colleges and in-state universities or not attend any college at all due to increased financial instability due to COVID. (Dicker 2020)The scholarly article reinforces the points made by these students by showing that highschool seniors have been affected by an enormous amount of stress at their young age.

This source shows the amount of emotional toll this has caused on these high school students and it also tries to spread this information to concerned parents, other students, and administrators for schools and colleges. The VOX media site is considered a large media news source and the platform can be used efficiently to get the word spread to a large audience. They also have the resources to find high school students and interview them in order to get their actual input rather than assuming what they would be going through as many other articles that concern this issue often do. However, this article does not have any measured data as it only has interviews of students which includes how they directly are being affected by the coronavirus. The author focused on the evidence provided by the students themselves instead of using outside facts in order to gather together data. The author trusts these interviewees in order to portray their situations in an accurate manner. 

The perspective of highschool seniors is very important to be represented during this pandemic as they are the new generations leaders. It is important to value how they are all getting affected whether it is through missing milestone events, losing a smooth transition from childhood to adulthood, or having their education limited due to financial crisis in families. These students will soon be the future doctors, lawyers, CEOs, and maybe even presidents and, although the class of 2020 may seem like a minority now, they will fully impact the future of the country yet to come.

Heim, J. (2020, March 30).For high school seniors, coronavirus brings a sad ending and unexpected lessons. Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/for-high-school-seniors-coronavirus-brings-a-sad-ending-and-unexpected-lessons/2020/03/30/1cf3f114-71eb-11ea-85cb-8670579b863d_story.html

This source is a news article from Washington Post written by Joe Heim. This piece shows the perspective of the students as well as other concerned individuals. It expresses how students feel let down due to the corona virus and how they are very upset about having to leave their friends on such a bad notes and so abruptly, especially the ones who are planning ongoing out of state. It also indicated the issues with students not being able to decide if they will be attending college in the fall due to financial reasons as well as concerns for picking the wrong college with no tours or ways to visit the university. This article proves that students are feeling stressed as their futures are up in the air due to the corona virus.


Pascoe, M. C. , Hetrick, S. E. & Parker, A. G. (2020.) The impact of stress on students in secondary school and higher education. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 25:1, 104-112, DOI: 10.1080/02673843.2019.1596823

This source is a scholarly source written by 3 authors, which include 2 professors, Pascoe, and Parker,  who teach at the Institute for Health and Sport and the third, Hetrick, is a professor of psychology and is also part of the National Centre of Excellence of Youth Mental Health. The authors used studies of media and experiments, and analysis of data in order to attain their information. For this scholarly source, their thesis is that the narrative presents research concerning the impact of academic-related stress, and the discussion of the impact on students’ learning capacity and academic performance, mental health problems due to this stress. This article shows how high school students have an increased level of stress due to academics, and social pressures which results in issues of mental health, sleep, physical activity and much more. I chose this article as it shows scientific data of how students are getting affected by academic and social stress.