Over Two Days, Pennsbury Graduates Class Of 2020

Wearing masks and separated into two groups, Pennsbury High School held their Class of 2020 graduation this week.

The district held their commencement on Tuesday for students with last names starting with A to K and Wednesday was for students with last names going from L to Z. Students were spaced out and physical distance was kept during the ceremonies.

“Despite the challenges that we’ve endured, someday, you will be up in years like me, and you’ll look back on these years as ‘the good old days,’” Superintendent Dr. William Gretzula said to graduates.

School Board President T.R. Kannan said: “Students are usually referred to as ‘leaders of the future,’ but knowing some of you personally, watching you at various events, during recognitions at School Board meetings and around the community, I strongly believe you are already leaders.”

Pennsbury Class of 2020 Senior President Jason Turner spoke about figurative masks that can hide who people really are and of those that have been “suffocating this country for centuries,” citing national conversations on race.

“We all wear masks. The mask you wear may be different than mine or the person you are sitting six feet apart from, but it is a mask nonetheless,” he said.

“For 17 years, I wore a particular mask. A mask that showed the world, my family, and myself what it wanted to see, but not what was true. After wearing this mask for so long, trying to convince everyone else on top of myself that I was not gay, it became so suffocating, I could no longer breathe with it on. So it took it off.”

“Once finally free of this mask, I realized what I confused to be ugly and imperfect about me, was something great,” Turner told his peers.

Speaker Noah Erdogan spoke to his peers about 2020 vision.

“Futuristic projections from decades ago predicted that mankind would set foot on Mars by 2020, but since then we haven’t made any celestial leaps, as our home remains terrestrial. Another 2020 prediction was that self-driving cars would be whipping on the highways, but unfortunately for all the cars we nearly crashed in senior lot, the reality that we are still operating our own vehicles is all too real,” he said.

Erdogan added: “Evidently, no one had true 2020 vision. As we have learned, predicting the future is impossible; however, as Pennsbury graduates we know it’s possible to help shape it.”

“The importance of working together in a graduating class of nearly 800 students is apparent, but each one of you is also a testament to standing out for being exactly who you are. Pennsbury prepared us not just for college, but for life — it’s not just about the way things end, but what it took to get us here,” graduate Diya Cherian said.

Watch Day One: 

Watch Day Two:

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