Governor Murphy:

We are the Weehawken High School Class of 2020.  We are proud of our school and beholden to our teachers and administrators for all their hard work and dedication during our time here.  As you continue to guide New Jersey through these unprecedented times, we would like to offer our sincerest thanks to you and the hundreds of state employees assisting you with this effort.  We understand and appreciate your tireless efforts to keep the citizens of our state safe and healthy. 

The coronavirus has wreaked chaos on our senior year as well as all of society. The final semester of our Senior year is supposed to be the best, most fun, and most rewarding of our entire high school experience.  It is when we get to strut the halls in a final victory lap before moving on to the next phase of our lives.  But this pandemic has turned the time of our lives into heartbreak as we have been forced to forgo traditional milestones and recognition of our achievements.

We have lost our spring sports seasons, including softball, baseball, lacrosse, tennis, and track.  Many of us have worked years in preparation for this senior season. As a competitive softball player, I was looking forward to competing in the last season of my high school career.  It is heartbreaking to know that my last game as a Junior was my last game ever.  And we are all saddened that we won't get another opportunity to compete in the Weehawken Indians black and red. Many of our Senior athletes have even been deprived of college recruiting opportunities.  

We have lost our much-anticipated Senior Night when our families join us on the field at our last home game and celebrate our sports achievements.  It is something we have looked forward to since we were freshmen. 

We have lost our Senior Prom.  We have prom dresses that we may never get to wear.   We won’t have the memories of this night which we were so excited for, nor the pictures to post on Snapchat and Instagram and reminisce with our friends years later.  We have lost our Senior sports banquet, our spring pep rally, our annual Senior class field trip, and our spring high school musical performance.

Even the biggest decision of our young lives, our choice of college, has been compromised. Our campus visits have been canceled.  Orientation events have been postponed.  Universities are laying the groundwork and preparing us for virtual learning as incoming freshmen. 

The most difficult thing of all is the way that our time together as Seniors came to an unceremonious end.  When our schools were ordered closed in March, we all assumed it would be temporary. We never got the chance to clean out our lockers, get our yearbooks signed, or say good-bye to teachers, and friends.  We never had the opportunity to achieve this rite of passage closure of our high school career.

And now as if that wasn’t enough, our Senior class faces the ultimate insult as we stand to lose our final rite of passage, our high school graduation.  We are already disappointed and feel cheated as all our milestone experiences have been canceled.  But we are strong, and we will endure. We have worked hard to get to this point, and we have earned the right to wear our graduation caps and gowns at our graduation ceremony.  We deserve to see our graduating class in its entirety one more time. Shane Epstein, the valedictorian of our 2020 Class, has written the graduation speech reflecting on our past four years that we want to hear.  We ought to be able to have the opportunity to say goodbye and thank you to our teachers who have been so instrumental in paving our future.  We want to experience the adrenalin rush and jubilation when we, together as a class, throw our caps in the air! 

A video of a virtual graduation in Ohio was recently circulated where a student walked up to the stage in the school auditorium and accepted his diploma from the Principal with only his mother in attendance. This is not a celebration. This is not a milestone. This is not a memory that we care to take with us. This is cold and insensitive and a slap in the face.  This minimizes and demeans all our accomplishments.  This is not a graduation that we want any part of. 

Governor Murphy, you have already decided the schools in New Jersey won’t reopen this school year.  But school districts, including Weehawken, are still waiting for news regarding the reopening of the economy, which makes it a challenge for administrators to plan for the future. This uncertainty has left the graduation decision unsettled.  The idea to ban all graduation ceremonies across the board other than virtual ones is both unfair and irrational.  How does a blanket policy make sense when different school districts have different resources at their disposal?  Are the challenges of planning a graduation ceremony in today’s environment not more daunting for a graduating class of 800 than one of only 90?  We understand the severity of this pandemic and we are supportive and appreciative of your efforts to ensure our safety. However, this does not have to be an all or nothing proposition. New Jersey has managed to find a way to open parks, beaches, boardwalks, golf courses, big-box stores, etc. We are fairly certain that we can find a creative solution to a graduation ceremony that preserves some of the age-old traditions.

Earlier today, May 19, 2020, in your daily briefing, a reporter asked about graduation, “we are opening the beaches with thousands of people on every beach in many many towns, why can’t we have a football field for graduation, six feet apart, far fewer people, and police will be watching it to make sure social distancing is adhered to.  A day at the beach is just that - relaxation.   Graduation is a life moment. What is the difference between that and waiting to get a slice of pizza at the beach?  Many have argued that it is not fair and there is no logic.”

You responded, “I say to the parents and Seniors, in particular, you have a right to have hope that we can still find a way.  I will say bear with us.  We will still figure this out.”

This letter is not intended to merely vent about the plight of our poor seniors.  We do have hope and we can figure this out. In turn, we want to be part of the solution.  Weehawken is fortunate to have the Waterfront Park, which is a perfect venue to have an outdoor graduation ceremony while strictly adhering to social distancing guidelines.  The soccer field is close to 100,000 square feet of open space. If we allow 8 feet between chairs for social distancing, we can safely accommodate over 1500 people.  Our senior class size is 94!   If every student brought two guests, the total number of people would still be less than 300.  It should not be that difficult to manage this small number of people for a one-hour event.  We would have to work in conjunction with the town police department for security and crowd control as well as the town facilities department for stage and sound set up.  They are well versed in this department as they set up the stage on the soccer field every year for our annual Weehawken Day.  The entire event can be live-streamed on Facebook and YouTube for all family members who are not able to attend. This is a plan that has worked at other high schools and universities across the country, including the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado where 1,168 cadets graduated just last month while strictly adhering to CDC social distancing guidelines by sitting 8 feet apart.  It is a formula that can be easily replicated at other high schools across the State of New Jersey.  This is only one workable solution.  There are others worth visiting from staggered ceremonies to the use of private facilities. 

While we understand the planning challenges and the liability concerns, we are certain that we can find a solution that is in accordance with CDC guidelines and does not serve as a contradiction to your state directives. An outdoor ceremony at the Waterfront, even if pushed back to July or August, would still be preferable to any kind of virtual alternative.  We believe that because conditions are changing so quickly, it makes sense to wait before making any premature decision on high school graduations throughout the state.  We are willing to wait with you until you figure it.  We are also here to assist and contribute in any way possible.  We implore you to let us be part of the process in developing a creative but safe alternative.  Please look at us at a valuable resource as we are the students, the ones who are impacted.  Our Seniors have been asked to endure a lot, and we accept the fact that our personal disappointments are a small price to pay to help support the end of this global pandemic.  The lost memories are just that, lost.   But please do the right thing and give us our moment.  Give us one final high school memory that we can cherish forever. 

Thank you again for your leadership, and for your consideration of this request.

Samantha Taddei

President, Class of 2020

Weehawken High School