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2020: A Class Dismissed – Veritie Howard

April 27, 2020

Veritie Howard, a senior at Windham High School who moved to Maine from Louisville, Kentucky last year, discusses how the coronavirus has affected her last months of high school — and the capstone art project she was hoping to finish.

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 Veritie Howard was recorded on April 6.

Veritie was interviewed on April 6, 2020. On that day, these were the top news stories in Maine:

Maine COVID-19 cases rise to 499; no new loss of life reported (By Steve Mistler & Patty Wight of Maine Public)
Maine establishes alphabetical system to deal with flood of unemployment claims (By Jennifer Michell of Maine Public)
As crisis deepens, Maine food banks scramble to keep up (By Kevin Miller of the Portland Press Herald)
Portland businesses call for rent freeze after some landlords refuse to budge (By Nick Schroeder of the Bangor Daily News)
Hospitality industry plagued with uncertainty after order to suspend most lodgings (By Abigail Curtis of the Bangor Daily News)
Dr. Dora Anne Mills: What it will take to return to ‘normal’ (From the Kennebec Journal)
DHHS closes Rockland office after employee tests positive for COVID-19 (By Ed Morin 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.