Coronavirus - Welcome Class of 2023

As we head into the Memorial Day Weekend 2020, we are trying a new Podcast format - a shorter episode without a guest. I wanted to share a personal reflection that I had after visiting school for the first time since late March. Every member of the Emmaus High School community has been experiencing this shutdown in their own way during the last two months. We have been saying even though the building is closed, our school is still open. But when I stepped foot inside of a practically empty EHS building, the feeling of closure really hit home.

What follows is a reflection on my possible final visit to building during the 2019-2020 school year:

When I arrived at Emmaus High School on Friday, May 22, 2020, to do my final room clean up for the year, the day should have felt entirely different. It was 10:40 a.m. Most students should have been in class or hustling to beat the bell. Other students would have been going through the Locker Commons towards busses that would take them to LCTI. Another group of students would be going toward the auditorium for a study hall.

Welcome Class of 2023

As I entered the doors closest to my room near the auditorium, my attention turned to the area right above the doors to a banner that reads Welcome Class of 2023. It had been there since August and there is no way that when fresh-faced students were learning their way through the halls of Emmaus High School that they could have predicted that their freshmen year would have ended this way.

Welcome Class of 2023

The Friday before Memorial Day is usually one filled with anticipation. Seniors are celebrating the culmination of four years of hard work leading to graduation. Underclassmen are finishing up final units of the year, preparing for final exams, and trying to maintain focus as the temperatures go up. The staff is trying to keep everyone on track, while thinking about the joys of the upcoming summer break.

Welcome Class of 2023

But on May 22, 2020, it was eerily quiet. There were only two cars in the parking lot closest to the auditorium. The lights were dark in the hallways and classrooms. Gone were the sounds you hear at the top of the podcast, sounds of students bustling through the hallways. It was so quiet you could hear the sounds of a train in the distance. On a “normal” day, it would never be that quiet. But as we know, not much is normal these days.

Welcome Class of 2023

Today is Day 1, March 12, 2020.

From the window of the 9th Grade Office, to the whiteboards visible through the classroom windows, it was like Emmaus High School was frozen in time at the end of that last day, Thursday, March 12. The next day, coincidentally, was Friday, the 13th and school for students was not scheduled. On Friday, teachers began planning for what we thought was a potential 2-week shutdown. There was little thought to plan for what has happened since. We are now over two months into distance learning. We have transitioned through three different phases. We have Meet-ed, Zoom-ed, Classroom-ed, and Puzzle-ed for months. But in the building at EHS, it is still March 12.

Welcome Class of 2023

It was like walking into a time capsule on Friday, May 22. The Guidance Department’s March calendar of career speakers was still on the wall. Bins outside of classrooms collecting soap and other items were untouched. Posters on lockers celebrating sports accomplishments and band performances were still hanging. The February edition of The Stinger school newspaper sat in the newsbox. Amazingly, the front page picture featured a student wearing a protective mask, not to prevent against Coronavirus, but to theoretically guard against Whooping Cough, which had seen several cases during the winter months at EHS.

Welcome Class of 2023

During the week of June 8, Emmaus High School will have the opportunity to Welcome the Class of 2023 all over again. But this time, you will only have the chance to pick up your stuff that you left behind and return all of your books. There will be no chance to greet your friends with high fives or hugs in the hallway. Hopefully, you still remember how to get to your locker, without being confused as you were during those first days in August. It has been quite the first year at Emmaus High School for our freshman class. A year they will not soon forget.

Welcome Class of 2023