At Massapequa High School there has been a tradition for many years for seniors. The tradition of making customized senior shirts with your friends and having a group photo taken with your entire grade. But this year is going to be a little different. Instead of taking a photo with the customized shirts, everyone is going to wear  Massapequa merch or our school colors of blue and gold for the big picture.

The reason for this change is because the school wants every student to feel included. If some students have a group shirt together, but some of the students don’t, then it wouldn’t be fair. Therefore it was decided that the whole school would unite together as one by wearing the same colors.

Some seniors have expressed their feelings about the sudden change of the senior shirt picture. Amy Donohue, a senior at Massapequa High School stated, “I do agree that kids should not be put in a position where they feel excluded, but I feel as though this wasn’t the year to change the tradition. We, as the senior class, have already had so much change and uncertainty of what last school year and this school year holds. I think we should have been able to continue on with the tradition of wearing our custom shirts, with our friends.”

Another senior, Meaghan Fitzgerald states, “I think it’s great this year that we included everyone because not everyone has a group to do a shirt with and it’s always important to make everyone feel like they belong.”

Jamie Fennimore, a senior at Massapequa High School said, “I felt that the big picture for this year definitely was more inclusive than past years, especially for kids who never had a larger group. Having everyone wear blue and gold was nice, but when changing into our group picture shirts, that was a bit chaotic and it felt a little rushed at times. I would have liked to have been given more time for the pictures with our friends.”

Many of the students at Massapequa feel as though the school should not have changed the tradition this year. It was only mentioned that it would be changed a few days prior to the big picture, which confused some of the students. Therefore in the photo some of the students are not wearing blue and gold. There are some different opinions between the senior class, but most agree that it would be best to not change the school’s senior picture day tradition.