Health & Illness

Coronavirus (COVID-19): I Am A Senior. What About Graduation?

Published: April 24, 2020

Dear TeenHealthFX,

It is my senior year and I probably won't have a graduation. I am worried about COVID but I am really bummed I wont be able to get my diploma. Do you think our schools can postpone graduation and do it at another time? What will they do?

Signed: I Am A Senior. What About Graduation?

Dear I Am A Senior. What About Graduation?,

We are faced with unprecedented times and no one is sure what the future holds. Government and public health officials are working hard to keep communities safe. School administrators and teachers are being very creative as they had to quickly adapt to the challenges of school closures and online learning.

TeenHealthFX knows that all seniors look forward to their graduation day. It’s a rite of passage and time to celebrate. You should be proud of what you’ve accomplished. All the decisions being made are for the well-being of all the students, their families and community. Have you reached out to your school to find out the plan for graduation? Will it be postponed, or done virtually? This is a perfect opportunity for you and your friends to come up ideas you can present to school administrators on how to recognize you and all your classmates.

Congratulations!

Signed: TeenHealthFX

Ratings

Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death in the US among people aged 10-14 ¹

Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death in the US among people aged 15-24 ²

51% of youth (6-17) get treatment each year for a mental health condition ³

15.6 teenage girls for every 1,000 will give birth to a baby before they are 20 years old. ⁴

Only 6% of high school students get tested for STDs ⁵

1/3 of high school students who were currently sexually active used effective hormonal birth control the last time they had sex with an opposite-sex partner ⁶

Nearly 30% of female students currently drank alcohol and nearly 20% currently used marijuana.⁷

2.14 million middle and high school students currently vape ⁸

Over 80% of women and men both report having experienced their first rape under the age of 25. ⁹

Almost 40% of high school students have reported using marijuana at least once. ¹⁰

83.88% of 12- to 17-year-olds have reported using marijuana within the last month. ¹¹

One in four women first experienced intimate partner violence before the age of 18. ¹²

5.9 million teens have reported to drink at least once in the past month. ¹³

In 2022, there were 1,573 motor-vehicle deaths from underage drinks ¹⁴

About 1 in 10 children live in a home with a parent who has a drinking problem ¹⁵

Only 65 percent of teens consistently wear seat belts when driving or as a passenger. ¹⁶

The risk of motor vehicle crashes is higher among 16- to 19-year-olds than any other age group. ¹⁷

49% of the youth report having less than 3 friends in 2022 ¹⁸

^{2.7 million youth report experiencing severe major depression}¹⁹

Over 3.3 million teens will be graduating from high school in the year 2023-2024 ²⁰

The average social media screen time for teens is 7 hours and 22 minutes per day ²¹