2 minute read

2020: A Class Dismissed – Anna LeBlanc

May 17, 2020

Anna LeBlanc, a senior at Edward Little High School, discusses finishing high school without the typical end-of-year rituals due to the coronavirus.

A photo of an empty classroom with overlayed text reading 2020: A class dismissed.

Born in the weeks and months after 9/11, and graduated in the year of a crippling pandemic, the Class of 2020 lived through some of the most profound change ever witnessed. These young adults missed out on cornerstone experiences that ease the transition from being a child to being an adult. We captured the stories of a class prematurely dismissed.

This video is part of the 2020: A Class Dismissed series. The Maine Monitor is speaking to seniors from as many Maine high schools as possible to tell the story of Maine’s Class of 2020 and how these soon-to-be graduates are dealing with the unexpected developments that come with a pandemic and a disrupted senior year. This video of Anna LeBlanc was recorded on May 8.

Anna was interviewed on May 8, 2020. On that day, these were the top news stories in Maine:

Mills announces accelerated reopening for retail stores, restaurants in 12 rural counties (By Kevin Miller of the Portland Press Herald)
Maine awarded $4.7 million to expand COVID-19 testing (By J. Craig Anderson of the Portland Press Herald)
As many as 2,000 workers needed in Maine to support production of virus tests (By Matt Byrne of the Portland Press Herald)
Racial disparity grows along with Maine’s number of virus cases (By Randy Billings of the Portland Press Herald)
As Maine begins to reopen, a closer look at the state’s response to the pandemic (By Nora Flaherty, Patty Wight and Steve Mistler of Maine Public)
As graduation nears, Maine ends an unprecedented school year altered by pandemic (By Jennifer Mitchell and Robbie Feinberg of Maine Public)
Augusta firefighter tests positive for COVID-19, prompting quarantine of others (By Keith Edwards of the Kennebec Journal)
She was in Maine’s largest COVID-19 outbreak, but tested negative. Then, she tested positive and died (By Eesha Pendharkar of the Bangor Daily News)

To view more of the day’s headlines, browse our collection of the state’s best coronavirus coverage.

Check out our interactive data dashboard to explore trends in Maine’s COVID-19 cases by county, age, sex of the afflicted individuals and more in charts updated daily with data from Maine’s CDC.

Bailey Beltramo

Bailey Beltramo is an emerging photographer who grew up in Canterbury, New Hampshire. He graduated with a degree in communications from Norwich University in 2017, and continued his education through the Professional Intensive program at the Rocky Mountain School of Photography. Both his photo and film work are pursued through a documentary approach and focus on capturing human experience in outdoor environments. His published work has spanned a range of settings from life on a dude ranch in Wyoming to the lessons of a non-profit, nature-based school in New Hampshire.