As students step into their fourth year of high school, the excitement of senior year begins. Traditional senior events like senior road trips, prom, and graduation begin to be on the radar for seniors as second semester progresses. 

Details about senior events are posing to be more difficult to communicate to students than most years. Senior Elaina Meisinger created a GroupMe group chat of current seniors at Metea last Monday to communicate different information about upcoming senior events. The goals of the group chat were to relay details about events such as senior assassins, prom, and other senior traditions. 

The group chat was soon taken down the same evening after the username “Kevin W.” deleted students from the group chat, except Meisinger because she was the owner of the group chat. There is not a senior enrolled at Metea with the name Kevin W.  After everyone had been deleted, Meisinger decided to take the group chat down entirely. 

“I created it because we have multiple committees planning events, I thought it would be easier to have one rule of communication,” Meisinger said.

The senior group chat has been a tradition at Metea, but it has also had struggles with staying up and active in the past. Since staff typically knows about the group chat but is not specifically involved, students do not feel the pressure to keep things as school-appropriate as they would if staff members were involved. 

“I was hoping that we would all be mature enough for everything to be okay and for the group chat to work,” Meisinger said. 

While Meisinger was hoping to follow senior traditions, some students thought a more organized approach would lead to more success. 

“I think it would have been better if we were told that it was a school-related group chat right away, instead of after people were already talking in it,” senior Raegan Wehde said. 

Some seniors were looking forward to the group chat and having a source of communication and bonding better with their peers while remote learning. When the group chat was deleted, some seniors were hoping there would be another group chat created in the future. 

Some students were looking forward to being able to talk and socialize with their peers remotely while staying with remote learning. 

“I think that a GroupMe was a perfect way,” Wehde said. “It was the way that was the most fun for us, e-learning seniors.” 

While some seniors were upset about the group chat ending, others do not think a group chat is an effective way to communicate details about upcoming events. 

“A group chat with like 600 people is just way too hard to manage,” senior Sebastian Segarra said. “When I was added I knew it was only a matter of time until the group chat died.”

Meisinger started a senior Remind instead of a group chat on Monday. She was hoping this would be a better solution because it allows owners to send messages, but other seniors would not be able to comment and respond.  However, this was soon taken down because of a limit on the number of people that can be added to the Remind. 

Due to COVID-19, planning safe senior events is more difficult than most years. Students are also anticipating these events more than in past years because of how much seniors have missed out on events like homecoming so far this year. 

Meisinger is working towards developing a new plan for communication that will be successful in the future and will still allow the class of 2021 to continue the senior tradition. She is hopeful that the different clubs and committees planning events will be able to create better communication for events and updates. 

“Hopefully, we will have a way to communicate that is more successful this year,” Meisinger said.