2 minute read

2020: A Class Dismissed – Bailee Mallett

May 1, 2020

Bailee Mallett, a senior at Fort Fairfield High School and percussionist in the pep band, discusses how the coronavirus has impacted her last months of high school.

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 Bailee Mallett was recorded on March 24.

Bailee was interviewed on March 24, 2020. On that day, these were the top news stories in Maine:

Maine now has 118 cases of COVID-19; Mills orders ‘public facing’ businesses to close (From Maine Public)
Maine officials offer dire warnings but few specifics on coronavirus revenue fallout (By Caitlin Andrews of the Bangor Daily News)
Only 41% of BIW workers come to work after first case of coronavirus at the shipyard (By Kathleen O’Brien of the Times Record)
Brunswick declares civil state of emergency, shelter-in-place order due to coronavirus, COVID-19 (By Erin Keller of News Center Maine)
Calls to police start to fall with public gatherings restricted and businesses shuttered (By Judy Harrison of the Bangor Daily News)
Portland mayor calls on landlords to suspend evictions during crisis (By Dennis Hoey of the Portland Press Herald)
Lewiston mayor announces housing protections during coronavirus emergency (From the Sun Journal)
Sewing groups around Maine create face masks amid shortage (By Abigail Curtis and Jessica Potila of the Bangor Daily News)
Demand grows for homemade medical masks, but CDC has reservations (By Andrew Rice of the Sun Journal)
As restaurants close, website connects Maine farmers with consumers (By Fred Bever of Maine Public)

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.