I feel sorry for the college and high school seniors, who aren’t going to get all of the traditional end-of-year experiences, like prom, senior week and so forth. They may not even have a traditional graduation ceremony. But at least this will be a memorable year for them.
Yeah the university where I teach has cancelled commencement activities. It’s really crappy for the students. Also, to a lesser extent, for us teachers who like to see them off.
But imagine the story they can tell their lazy grandkids! “When I graduated from high school, I didn’t have to walk 10 miles barefoot in the snow because we weren’t allowed to leave our houses!”
Hawaii is not officially closed, but there’s a curfew in effect on Kauai, while here on Oahu restaurants, bars and nightclubs are closed for 15 days except for take-out food service, plus parks. Most if not all tourist sites statewide are closed, and many hotels are shutting their doors. (A neighbor was supposed to fly to Molokai today, but her hotel closed.) The governor has asked tourists to stay away for 30 days.
Metrobus is now on a modified Sunday schedule on the 20 busiest routes; the other 305 are not running at all.
Starting tomorrow, county service won’t charge fares and all passengers will be expected to board through the rear door unless they absolutely need to board through the front (e.g.: wheelchair-bound).
I missed almost all my graduation exercises for various rational reasons and I suffered subsequent social crippling only briefly. Prom? Senior week? I never saw-em. Secondary students missing this semester may face summer sessions, course challenges, adult or continuation high schools, and/or they’ll just go for GEDs (diploma equivalents).
How will scholarships function when a quarter or semester is shot to shit?
Wisconsin joins the other Great Lakes states by entering a form of lockdown today. We are not to leave our homes except for essential activities, plus nuclear-family-scale recreation (I’ll be taking a long bike ride with my kid this afternoon; it’s the one day this weeks that is neither cold nor rainy).
For me the word “lockdown” doesn’t seem to match a situation where we can still go out for certain purposes and to ride a bike. Is that what the state calls it?
No, you’re right, and I agree. The governor is calling it a “safer-at-home order.”
Easterseals Telethon will go on in some areas … using archived footage and no live operators.
Primary election update. Yesterday we got forms for requesting absentee ballots. They’re sending them out to everyone. Trying to get as many people as possible to vote that way. Still will have a nominal “election” at some point.