Due to COVID-19, many events were cancelled or moved online in the past year. Among them were the senior and junior proms, which were cancelled on January 12 by the DOE. 

     “I wasn’t really surprised because I already knew with the whole pandemic, it really wasn’t gonna get better,” said senior Jace-Lynn Tolentino. “So it wasn’t much of a surprise, but I was still sad that I wouldn’t be able to experience senior prom and senior luaus.”

     Junior and senior proms had been cancelled last year as well due to COVID-19. This meant that the Class of 2021 did not get to experience prom.   

     “I’ll just say that I’m just disappointed,” said junior Marlee Naira. “Because I’m gonna become a senior soon, and I was kinda wishing for the high school experience of a junior.”

      In addition to this, the first semester of the school year was done through distance learning, which limited the amount of social interaction students had. It was harder to keep in contact with friends because of this. 

     “For me, I felt like because we didn’t get to go talk to people a lot because of social distancing and the pandemic and being quarantined, I didn’t get to see my friends a lot, so I became a little isolated,” Tolentino said. “And I think I got a little bit sad and a little depressed because I didn’t have my high school experience anymore, and one of my most important high school experiences was senior year. I felt like that was taken away from me.”

     Some students are planning smaller events instead of prom, such as getting together with a small group of friends while abiding by social distancing guidelines. The prom committees are also trying to plan something for the seniors and juniors.

     “For the senior council, we’ll try to do our best to make sure that our classmates will kind of make the most out of senior year,” said Senior Prom Chairperson senior Kammi Miyashita.

     Although there are not any definite plans on activities that could replace prom, there may still be events that could be scheduled. More information will be released later.