To the Editor:

I am writing to the faculty, administration, and staff of Guilderland High School.

Guilty. I am. I admit it. Of what you ask? Of judging, of being critical, of wondering how “that” or “this” decision was made. I talked to my husband, other senior parents, my kids — and then I read the letter in the newspaper from an upset parent and I reflected.

You see, I too have a senior. I know what this senior year means, having had a child graduate two years ago. It’s a magical time. I spent a lot of time two summers ago dropping and picking up at parties, writing checks to recent grads, and celebrating with family and friends — and my son had the time of his life.

I know what’s been lost. My freshman also knows what has been lost. Most importantly, my senior knows what has been lost.

Reflection. I also wondered about the signs. But is it about the sign or the thought and care behind the sign?

Reflection. I wondered, “What the heck are we going to do at the Jericho Drive-In? No shot Max goes.” “And my senior has to sit by himself?”

Then we went to the parade. Wow! I now know something great will come out of the Jericho.

Reflection. Why don’t they allow kids to graduate together? The governor changed the rules; they should change the event. And then GHS changed the event.

You see, I don’t hold the same opinion as the The Altamont Enterprise letter writer. Was I once critical? Sure was.

Reflection and that damn parade changed my mind (this is where I well up because the parade was so touching). I do not feel at all as if my son is being “dismissed.”

I actually am guilty of thinking the opposite — this is overkill. How about one nice thing? How am I going to get my son to go to three separate events?

When the first event took place, Max didn’t want to go. “It’s dumb. It’s a sad reminder,” he said. After some gentle nudging, he changed his mind.

The kid was beaming the entire time. So were my two other children, who got to see many of their teachers and former teachers. I held back tears the entire time and my husband and I said thank-you to everyone we passed. We told them they were special.

I am sorry that the letter writer only had three teachers address her children. That was most certainly not the case with us. Hall monitors rushed to see Max; he had elbow bumps, screams, shouts of joy. Mrs. Mac said, “The whole “Ortull” family is here — boertel, moertel, joertel.”

Teachers asked where he was going and he told them. They said he was going to be amazing and love college. When he told them he was nervous, they told him that was normal.

This parade changed my mind about the Jericho. I know big things are in store because the faculty, staff, administration went “big” at the parade. The administration’s decision to change to 53 students at a time is amazing.

Is it perfect? Nope. What else could be perfect other than the graduation we all hoped for, where all graduates and their family and extended family are in attendance? Let us not forget that you have state regulations to follow.

It’s easy to judge. It’s easy to be critical. Where does it get us? Not one of us has been through a pandemic. There is certainly no handbook on how to handle a graduation in the midst of a pandemic. If there was, would that make everyone happy? No way.

Not everyone is going to be happy about the decisions made. But this is what I know in my gut about the decisions made at GHS — nothing was done without great effort and thought. I wholeheartedly disagree with the letter writer.

I don’t want to criticize, since she’s welcome to her opinion but I need to tell you this. Not everyone agrees. I can’t even imagine the countless hours spent organizing these events. I wonder if this crossed the mind of the letter writer — while trying to organize, debate, think outside the box, and coordinate graduation events, others still had to: lead an entire district, lead an entire school (not just the seniors), teach multiple classes, and support the district in immeasurable ways.

I am an educator. I know the time I put into educating 64 students online for three months with no handbook. I was busy the entire day and then into the night. It was stressful and mind-numbing. I can’t imagine trying to plan graduation events on top of this.

[Class advisors] Danielle Benner and Brenna Autrey, I thank you. How you did all that, along with your course load, I’ll never know. Mrs. Benner and Mrs. Lisa Bedian even hand-delivered goodies to their 9A classes on top of it.

Hours. I know hours were spent. Sleep was lost. Outside-the-box thinking transpired. Your decisions were not made lightly and most certainly aren’t “dismissing” the seniors. How could they not feel the love at the parade? It was tangible.

I am saddened that someone has, for a lack of better words, made you feel bad. It’s shameful to me that you are being so harshly criticized when I know that decisions were made from the heart; you are educators — that’s what you do best.

Please know that I am grateful to every one of you who worked so very hard to make this difficult situation special for the seniors. My senior appreciates it. I know that I may still have questions and things I wonder, but not for one single moment do I feel unappreciative and ungrateful for all you’ve tried to do for them all. Pettiness gets you nowhere.

With appreciation and gratitude.

Jennifer Oertel

Guilderland