With rising case numbers, how could we justify worrying about a parade, dance, and football game? Grades and student-engagement were plummeting. Every day was beginning with higher case counts and ending with Zoom fatigue. Remote learning was taking its toll. Did we really need to worry about the Homecoming Queen?

Knowing this question was not mine to answer, I turned it over to our students and our ASB advisor, Mr. Call. I figured they’d mull it over and eventually come to the same rational conclusion I did: Let’s just cancel it.

I did not anticipate Clara Kehoe and Emily Ramirez.

These two are our ASB President and Vice President. They see what’s possible and are quiet visionaries.

They are not yet worn down by experience or doubt like adults. They’re not bound to the same world view. Clara and Emily are some of my heroes of COVID. They’re yet another example of why student voice matters. They see what’s possible. They know what they want, and it comes from such a pure place.

The special thing about Kingston High School is we’re not very big. We’re the smallest AA high school in the state, a gem tucked away amid the trees. We’re self-sufficient and don’t expect much when it comes to frills. We have a bigger, more traditional high school with all the pomp and circumstance just down the road. That’s not really us. When we ask for something, it’s because we want it and need it.

The students needed homecoming.

Our students here are close to each other, and everyone is like family. We bicker. We don’t always trust outsiders. We take care of our own. It almost always means we’re from here and we chose to stay here. (More affluent communities like Bainbridge Island and Poulsbo are right next door.) We don’t do well when we’re apart for too long.

Being a Buccaneer is a point of pride and an apt description of us too. We’re sort of rebels. We’re not hung up on tradition. Clara and Emily embody that. They have that sense of quiet care and infectious humility that comes with a rebellious spirit too. They speak loudly without having to raise their voice. The only thing we had to do was listen.

So now we are planning a true Home-Coming (once the weather gets warmer). Our students have begun returning to us in person. Soon we will have our first social event of the year. It won’t be a dance or a football game, but it will be a time for students to simply be with each other (six-feet apart and with masks, of course). We have students like Clara Kehoe and Emily Ramirez to thank for it. It’s shaping up to be a homecoming like no other. I’m so glad I didn’t cancel the thing. Maybe we’ll even have music. ◼