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'I'm just glad we're able to do something for them': Capital High School seniors honored as the Class of COVID-19

School districts across the state couldn't let this year's graduating class go without a graduation ceremony.

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BOISE, Idaho — While the coronavirus pandemic has been one of the biggest crises this country has experienced in decades, there's a group of 18 year-olds whose lives have been book-ended by big events.

This year's high school seniors were all born around September 11, 2001.

Now, almost 19 years later, the graduating class of 2020 has lost a lot to the coronavirus.

No spring sports, no senior prom, no senior skip day - a lot went wrong with these second-semester rites of passage.

But school districts across the state couldn't let this year's graduating class go without a graduation ceremony.

This week, the Boise School District will host a week of 'walk the stage' events to give its seniors the pomp and circumstance they weren't sure they would get.

On Monday, nearly 400 students from Capital High School and their families decked out their cars, parked in the school's parking lot during their allotted time, only getting out of the car when it was their turn to walk across the stage inside the gymnasium.

"The kids are having fun with it," Capital High counselor Jack Donnelly said. "They're in their hats, they're in their caps and gowns, so I think they're trying to make the most out of it."

Seniors we spoke with say they were just happy to have some sense of normalcy.

"I'm just glad the school was able to do something like this," Eveline Julugbah said. "The fact that my family still got to see me walk and they still got to cheer and it was just amazing."

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"We've watched them cry, we've seen all the stresses they've gone through," Capital High math teacher Heidi Trunnell said. "We want them to know how proud we are of them and for them to feel that."

After all, they have been waiting for 12 years for this moment.

"My family's all here all the teachers are all lined up for us so it's a nice ceremony to have," graduate Connor Jones said.

RELATED: Boise senior's prom was canceled so her family held a MASKarade prom in their living room

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