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go 🤬 yourself

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I HAVE FUCKING NIGGA SEXY PROOF THAT U LIEK COCKS

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NO TALKING

NO GUM

NO CURSING (🤬 and hell count as bad words, too)

NO SCREAMING

NO RUNNING

NO HATS

NO 🤬

NO WIN

NO FAIL

NO MUSIC

NO ELECTRONICS

NO TALKING

NO THINKING WITH OWN BRAINS

NO THINKING WITH PORTALS

GOD BLESS AMERICA

NO SECKS

NO FUN

NO NIGGERS

NO U

NO DRUGS

NO HAPPINESS

NO FREEDOM

🤬 ARE WELCOME

NO PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION

NO TALKING

NO HUGGING

NO SMILING

NO LAUGHING

NO LIBERALS

NO REPUBLICANS

NO LULZ

NO GET

NO LOLDONGS

NO PHONE

NO ????

NO PROFIT!!

FINAL DESTINATION

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You 🤬 🤬 sucking mother 🤬 masturbating crab eating syphilis infested crack smoking donkey 🤬 sucking grandma sodomizing raw sludge munching dehydrated lizard 🤬 kissing piece of a crusty dried up severed appendix dripping with rank seeping gastrointestinal fluid droopy tit grabbing colon cowboy group 🤬 🤬 end of the line enema drinking ranger bob blowing dark one-legged two dollar midget 🤬 when you finally come to that point in your life when you don't need rubber sheets and you've stopped sodomizing yourself with that broom your supposed to sweep your padded cell with give me a call and I'll get you what will be probably your only sexual experience with a woman just tell the pimp to charge it to my American express you Alpo eating lipstick wearing Tuesday transvestite 🤬 tampon wearing diseased dying leper farm 🤬 super fat anus slime drinking double 🤬 packing taster of jackhammered 🤬 who lives in a poverty-stricken cesspool swimming degenerate producing inbred DNA stripped festering callous blistering a rhinoceros sized 🤬 while juicing a rotten beet to make your dog 🤬 drink flavored with bat intestines and foul cyst discharge from a herpes infected stripper with titanium 🤬 tassels to keep from corroding in your horse manure black hairy tounged crevasse of a mouth while you use your rancid unwashed sperm splattered 🤬 smudged oily toad-skinned wet slimy cold rotting piece of shingle skin peeling china plate grabbing sick cherry Kool Aid drinking hand to open the door of your matted cat 🤬 olive-green 🤬 carpeted 82 white rusted ford escort driving broken back window having cracked blood red dashboard taping fool who licks his aids infected stamps from the putrid floor of that deathtrap digesting the coalescing oil and rotten banana peels swirling in a pool of last weeks vomit take your head and stick it up your flat chested dog 🤬 ugly faux 🤬 having trashy dirty white vinyl wearing crusty orange 🤬 stained sticky g-string mouthing smelly cheap 🤬 burping antelope 🤬 bon-bon substituting personal prostitute and take that chlamydia infested 🤬 out of your government cheese eating 🤬 mouth so you can tell it to Jerry Springer and I hope you don't leave a puddle in the chair when you find out your mother is your brother but at least you can tell your boyfriend your operation has finally been approved after that you drop of urine dangling off a crack whores 🤬 when you get your mental disability check in the mail and you buy your one-legged midget lover that vibrator she's been wanting cause your pencil 🤬 doesn't satisfy her spend the change you have left and get yourself a Tic Tac cause you breath smells like you swallowed every dead decaying piece of animal waste ever spewed from the combined multinational product of the worlds 🤬 living and dead. When you stop your correspondence free education living off of trash can deposits from the horse meat animal blood processing plant were you were born from a transferred then implanted growth in a cows prostrate as a mutant pregnancy where you were blown with a gust of musty dung frothed flagellant which left a permanent green stain on your receding hairline and planted you in a toxic waste dumps cafeteria to serve crusty grease dripping reprocessed rehydrated refried canned in Kenya buffalo tail and anus filled slop to your sickly looking cancerous malignant growth drooling pea-brained co-workers who bring you their used condoms spent masturbating to 70's 🤬 that was stuck to the back of the garbage truck they snuck your afternoon snack out of to coerce you to come to their house and shoot your impotent 🤬 dribble over a pre-existing concrete floor as a substitute for industrial grade adhesive which was used to plaster your 🤬 cheeks together to prevent you from further birthing any of your kind as it's been said your skid stain kind have made such an offense your highest determinate of worth is the skin on your 🤬 which was stretched out to Timbuktu by the force of a toilet flush from which you forgot to stand during and the washing of your pair which clogged the most vile sediment of sewage from passing required ten hours of dynamite blasting to remove your withered pair of elephantiasis carrying gonads and liberate the flow of slimy raw waste that spawned your existence you sit in your duct taped chair drinking llama 🤬 from a Peruvian nomad's dying animal and flip the channels on your TV while pulling your 🤬 looking at Martha Stewart arrange a centerpiece from garage trash all of which has become a daily ritual. You sick 🤬!

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In party dresses or come as you are, with colored lights flashing in their bedrooms and teachers-turned-DJs spinning, high schoolers have turned to virtual proms to salvage at least one slice of fun and tradition for the Class of 2020.

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NEW YORK (AP) - In party dresses or come as you are, with colored lights flashing in their bedrooms and teachers-turned-DJs spinning, high schoolers have turned to virtual proms to salvage at least one slice of fun and tradition for the Class of 2020.

And they're getting help from familiar brands like Teen Vogue and Jack in the Box, with both serving as hosts to thousands of teens.

Celebrities, too, are taking on prom: The "Get Out" actress Allison Williams was a guest DJ for Zoom partygoers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and "Jack Ryan" star John Krasinski was joined by Billie Eilish when he threw a prom live on YouTube.

"It's terrible that it's happening to your class, but I hope you're having a good time anyway," Williams told about 100 teens, staff and guests April 16 at the prom hosted by the Baton Rouge Youth Coalition, an after-school program.

The theme was "Royaltee," an acknowledgement that while some kids had already bought their dresses before lockdown, others never got the chance and were welcome in T-shirts.

On top, Williams sparkled in a strapless copper sequin dress, joking that she couldn't get up and dance because "there are sweatpants happening."

Alauna Stults, 17, in Findlay, Ohio, will wear a blue bedazzled two-piece outfit when she attends an online prom May 9 thrown by the party apparel rental service Charlotte's Closet and an event planning site, My School Dance. Charlotte's Closet is donating dresses to teens in need, including Alauna.

"I was looking forward to prom," she said. "I was pretty pumped up about it. I was planning on going with a group of my friends, but it's really cool we can still dress up and do everything we would do for a prom, like doing makeup."

High schools and cheer teams have thrown virtual proms of their own as social media has filled up with sweet moments among families. Dads have taken their dressed-up daughters for living room spins for a dance or two, and teens have organized home proms among parents and siblings.

"Prom is definitely one of those bigger life moments when you're growing up, even if you find it to be corny or not cool. It definitely still is something that's a moment you look back on and remember," said Teen Vogue Editor-in-Chief Lindsay Peoples Wagner.

The site expects about 5,000 teens to attend its virtual prom May 16 on Zoom. Organizers are working with high schools around the country to set up separate rooms so kids can be with their friends as celebrity co-hosts pop in and DJs get busy.

YouTuber Emma Chamberlain, H.E.R. and "Euphoria" star Storm Reid are expected.

"It will be really interactive, and that's going to be the fun part of it," Peoples Wagner said.

As part of a social distancing campaign, #StayInTheBox, Jack in the Box is working with schools in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Houston to put on a prom in May, complete with free food and delivery codes.

Serenity Cadogan in Covington, Georgia, near Atlanta is only 12, but she hosted a high school prom live on Instagram on March 31, which was National Prom Day, for more than 600 teens around the world, from Texas to London.

"We wanted to brighten their day," said the seventh-grader, who leads a chapter of Becca's Closet, a nonprofit that donates free prom dresses to high school girls. "Everybody was really happy. It was really classy. I didn't expect that many people but it actually ran pretty smoothly."

Ironically enough, at least one online school, the public K-12 Washington Virtual Academies, hosts an offline prom each year for the students it serves across the state of Washington. Not this year. Prom will be online, just like school.

"People have reached out to us saying, hey, how do we do a virtual prom? But that's not something we've previously done, so we're embarking on this adventure just like schools all over the U.S.," said Summer Shelton, the head of school.

Offline, the school hosts prom in Tacoma, its home base. Students travel from as far away as Spokane to attend, staying in hotels. The date for Shelton's virtual prom had not been finalized but will likely be in June. The school has about 500 juniors and seniors.

"This is one of the most looked-forward-to nights of the year," Shelton said. "Right now they're dealing with disappointment, understandably, but trying to move past disappointment and saying, OK, what do we do now to make this special?"

Donna Sheperis, an associate professor of counseling at Palo Alto University's Los Altos, California, campus, sees other ironies for a tech-savvy generation missing out on prom.

"They also crave human connection," she said. "They crave a chance to dress up and dance with their friends. They crave some time that's just for them. And this year, they can't get it."

___

Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.

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Undefeated, high schoolers head online for isolation proms

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NEW YORK (AP) - In party dresses or come as you are, with colored lights flashing in their bedrooms and teachers-turned-DJs spinning, high schoolers have turned to virtual proms to salvage at least one slice of fun and tradition for the Class of 2020.

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Each senior and up to four family members will have a scheduled time to report to the Auditorium. Each senior will have a cap and gown picture taken by a professional photographer. Video will then be recorded of each student taking the traditional walk across the stage to receive their diploma. Those individual videos will be edited together into a full graduation ceremony.

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GULFPORT, Miss. (WLOX) - Gulfport High School's graduating seniors will get to walk across a stage and accept their diplomas on their originally scheduled graduation date, with a few modifications.

During the week of May 11-15, each senior and up to four family members (parents and/or legal guardians only) will have a scheduled time to report to the Ray Bishop Auditorium. Each senior will have a cap and gown picture taken by a professional photographer. The Gulfport School District will purchase an 8x10 for each student as a token of appreciation.

Video will then be recorded of each student taking the traditional walk across the stage to receive their diploma. Those individual videos will be edited together into a full graduation ceremony, which will also include:

The Marine JROTC Pledge of Allegiance

A performance by a few members of the GHS Choir

Recognition of the Valedictorian and Salutatorian

Speeches from the Valedictorian and the Senior Class President

Senior Video

Presentation of the Class

Senior Student Message

The video will be aired on AdmiralNation.com on May 27, 2020, at 7:00 p.m., which was the original graduation date. Students will be able to watch their own graduation for the first time in the presence of family, and it will also be available to the Gulfport community and any out of town family members.

"While this school year is one we will never forget, the students of the Class of 2020 will be remembered for years to come for all they have accomplished over the last 12 years as well as for the way they overcame obstacles during this historic time," said Sandy Commer-East, Gulfport Schools Community Relations Director.

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Gulfport High School announces alternative plan for 2020 graduation

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GULFPORT, Miss. (WLOX) - Gulfport High School's graduating seniors will get to walk across a stage and accept their diplomas on their originally scheduled graduation date, with a few modifications. During the week of May 11-15, each senior and up to four family members (parents and/or legal guardians only) will have a scheduled time to report to the Ray Bishop Auditorium.

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How to Plan & Execute a Virtual Graduation

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How to Plan & Execute a Virtual Graduation

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Love the graduation parade idea!

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How to Plan and Execute a Virtual Graduation Experience that Truly Honors Seniors

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If (or when) you cancel graduation, chances are your community won't be surprised, but there's bound to be much disappointment. Graduation and commencement ceremonies are the most significant milestone of every school, and for seniors missing out on this pivotal experience due to the COVID-19 pandemic is nothing short of earth-shattering (just read this article from Vox).

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"Pre-record" an actual ceremony with some of the traditional/essential components. Host a live watch party on the school's official IG/social media platform. Administrators, staff, etc rotate being MCs during the watch party to interact and engage with viewers. Use the Seniors to plan the watch party layout for the larger community. Invite parents and students to join in on the live feed & send well wishes to the graduating class! Create a unique hashtag and share away with the entire community. Screencast it...this will be one more piece of memorabilia that students will have.

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I’ve been chatting w/our HS Principal and we are thinking about doing a full scale community outreach asking community members to write letters of hope & encouragement to all graduating seniors. We are hoping for each senior to receive 5 letters from people in our community.

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The day Anya Ailsworth's school announced it was closing, it was also the opening night for a one-act, student-directed play in which she was supposed to be on stage doing what she loves most.

A vocal performance major when she heads to college this fall, she and her mom, Brady O'Mary, mourn that loss and worry about the cancellation of her upcoming choir concerts, father-daughter dance, talent show, prom, pitch night for her entrepreneurship class and even graduation.

"It was just a flood of the possibility of all these things being canceled and I remember looking at her and I just didn't know what to say," O'Mary says.

O'Mary is among the many anxious parents of high school seniors waiting for the other shoe to drop on the seniors, who were born in the shadow of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

"It's not only the loss of the human connection and the feedback that they get from their teachers and their peers, and the loss of the experience, but it is the loss of the memories because they won't have them," she says.

We turned to a few experts to get some advice for parents and their seniors who are finding their plans for senior year totally turned upside down.

College concerns

For many students, this is a critical time to make their final decision on their college by the May 1 deadline (some schools have pushed back that decision deadline so make sure to check). In fact, many families planned their final round of college visits over Spring Break to do it. Those visits, as well as admitted student days and other events, were all canceled.

The good news, says Patrick O'Connor, a Detroit-based college counselor and author of College is Yours 2.0: Preparing, Applying, and Paying for Colleges Perfect for You, is that many colleges already have virtual tours online perfected over the years for students who couldn't get to campus under normal circumstances.

He suggests families look for those tours, as well as for social media groups of admitted students to get to know future classmates. In fact, he says, students might even get to know classmates better through social media than if they were actually on campus.

Financial aid is another big concern. With the huge stock market fluctuations, parents might be worried about their college investments, he says. If the coronavirus has changed anything for families, such as a layoff or big losses on investments, O'Connor says to immediately call the financial aid office.

"These are the folks that want to do everything they can ethically and legally to have you come to college," he says. "... Financial aid will do everything in their power to make sure it's a good, affordable investment for you."

He says any decreases in financial aid packages would be the last resort for colleges "simply because their interest is to bring a strong diverse class to campus and they know that the best way to do that is to support them as much as possible."

He also says if circumstances have changed for families, it is not too late to begin the college search again. Many colleges actively look for students throughout the summer months, he says.

Students also can consider a delayed start to college; the admissions office can help with those discussions, O'Connor says.

To students, he has this advice: "We are all in this together. While this takes away some opportunities for community with some, it creates new opportunities for community with others. That's probably going to be centered more on family than friends as we hunker down for the next few weeks. This is an opportunity to create some very important moments with people you will not be with much anymore. As a senior, you are leaving and heading off to college. This is as good as a chance as always to create good moments with your family and build on that foundation before you head out."

Memories and mental health

Parents are sharing through social media theirs and their seniors' sadness over possible loss of moments they've looked forward to for four years.

O'Mary assured her daughter it's OK to feel everything she's feeling and that together, students and parents will figure out the path ahead.

"It's your choice and it's your reality. I have no doubt these kids will do great things. ... They will be OK," O'Mary says. "... I'm hoping our education system will shift a little bit more to be about the journey and the experience as opposed to the grade or the award, because they will, right or wrong, have to figure out what that journey looks like because it's very different from what they thought it was going to be."

"Good will come out of this. That's theirs to write. It's their story," O'Mary says.

What O'Mary is doing with her daughter is just what the experts suggest all parents do.

"Let them feel the feelings they have. It is a legitimate loss. It's OK for them to feel these feelings and to express them," says Aileen Kelleher, a licensed clinical social worker in Chicago. Find her on Instagram at @ aileen_family_therapist.

Also, have faith in their ability to create new milestones and memories; capturing this moment is its own milestone, she says.

For parents struggling with loss of memory-making moments, Kelleher recommends feeling the loss. "Don't feel like you must put on a happy face," she says. How you react models for your kids how to grieve, she says.

Veronica Ursetto of Integrative Perspectives Counseling, suggests working with your senior to see if they have interest in brainstorming ways to include the most important people in a virtual private graduation ceremony and even talk virtually with their peers to create a makeup prom. "Often, teenagers are full of ideas about how to get what they want, they just need an adult to support them," she says.

As many parents know, keeping a teen cooped up in the house is so much different than for a toddler. Kelleher suggests parents give teens input into what their schedule looks like, while remembering they still need help in creating a consistent routine and to help keep their spirits up.

In that schedule, make sure they build in a lot of movement throughout the day as well as FaceTime and calls with friends, she says.

Warning signs

"It's really normal for your teen to experience feelings of anger, sadness and worry," Ursetto says.

"We are going through a shared loss as a community, it's important to use our strengths to build each other up and support our teens through using this time to explore new interests, connect with family and make their own meaning," she says. "If you are having a hard time with this transition, imagine your teen with limited life experience trying to understand why life changes one day."

Kelleher suggests parents keep their eyes out if their teen's behavior starts getting destructive. Other warning signs include self-harm, rough behavior, hoarding, a loss of cheerfulness and an inability to function as they normally would, she says.

If they are unable to complete their e-learning work or attend dinners with the family, it could be time to reach out for help, she says. Many therapists are offering teletherapy during the pandemic.

One thing to remember, Kelleher says, is that seeking a therapist is nothing to be ashamed of as your child and your family navigates all of these changes.
Follow Chicago Parent on Instagram.

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How to Help Your High School Senior Through COVID-19 Pandemic

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The day Anya Ailsworth's school announced it was closing, it was also the opening night for a one-act, student-directed play in which she was supposed to be on stage doing what she loves most.

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Have students recreate the school via Minecraft

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The day before University of Pennsylvania students were told that their college commencement would be held online, junior Andrew Guo thought of an alternative to holding the address over Zoom. Students could have a "Hey Day" and graduation inside Minecraft, just as a Japanese elementary school had organized days earlier.

Quickly, "Penncraft" students began to recreate dormitories, food trucks, and local sculptures in-game. Makarious Chung, an early builder, measured buildings' dimensions and streets positions constantly to ensure their scale was as accurate as possible. The first day of building, students took an hour to decide the placement of one street. Their main goal was to have a completed campus, specifically Locust Street, for graduating seniors to walk down in-game now that COVID-19 ensured they wouldn't return to campus and complete this UPenn tradition.

"I'm the first in my family to graduate from college so it wasn't just my commencement, it was for the rest of my family too," senior Nyazia Sajdah-Bey says. She left campus suddenly, and is now helping rebuild it in Minecraft, days after departure. "I didn't have the chance to properly mourn or, finish out my senior bucket list, say goodbye to my friends and teachers," she says. "I'm still trying to process that loss. So it's really sweet working on the campus. It's making the process of leaving feel less sudden and more gradual." Guo, Chung, and Sajdah-Bey are a few of the hundreds of college students on similar paths of departing and virtually rebuilding.

Students from Boston University to UCLA, from South Louisiana Community College to Northwestern University, have recently created or resurrected Minecraft servers and shared their creations on Discord chats, in Facebook meme groups, and on Reddit threads. The boom of college Minecraft servers has begun. These servers have the express purpose of bringing students together and building, oftentimes focused on recreating their college campuses. Searches for Minecraft server hosting have peaked to unprecedented levels in the last few weeks, and thousands of students are discussing college servers, most notably on the Facebook group "Zoom Memes for Self Quaranteens." Smaller groups and clubs, like Bowdoin College's men's ultimate frisbee team or University of La Verne's debate team, have found ways to bond in survival mode servers after their practices and championships were canceled. Zoom isn't nearly enough, and it doesn't carry the ten years of memories that Gen Z has for Minecraft.

"I'm not going to see campus as I remember it."

An overwhelming number of colleges recently closed their campuses and moved to online courses, which felt like a painful shock to students, especially seniors, who expected to have months more time on campus. I was gutted when I had to pack away my Oberlin College dorm room and drive homeward over a weekend. As I entered self-quarantine, I created an Oberlin server for Minecraft, a game I've had for a decade and one that has catalyzed dozens of relationships with people I've never met in real life. Our server is small, but I'm able to spend time building a home with my partner and adventuring with seniors that I never said goodbye to. Minecraft has become a salve for many students like myself, and college servers have started to become a place where students can log in to process the sudden loss of an on-campus community - or maybe rebuild it.

"I'm not going to really see campus alive again. I can go to the buildings, I can go to the space, I can go to the actual square, the plot, but I'm not going to see campus as I remember it," Jay Gibbs, a University of Chicago senior, says. "So from my point of view, it's basically gone at this point." Although Minecraft does allow for building 1:1 scale replicas of campuses, just as importantly it allows students to fill campus spaces and interact with each other. After the Penn Relays - the oldest track and field competition in the United States - was canceled for the first time in 125 years, Penncraft started to work with the competition's staff to host a virtual "speedrunning" version of the Relays in Minecraft. Once each college has a completed in-game campus in the coming weeks, it will be easier to host events; Brown and Columbia are discussing intramural Minecraft Hunger Games.

Even without formal organization, students have come together in college servers in curious ways. In the Oberlin College server I created, I returned one day to find an impromptu food cooperative, a throwback to the famous and culturally significant Oberlin Student Cooperative Association that feeds a fourth of the student body with meals cooked by their peers. This Minecraft version mostly consisted of a chest filled with inedible seeds and raw chicken. On the University of Minnesota server, two students played spikeball on the campus green, tossing a sunflower to each other. In the University of Texas server, students held an in-game birthday party at the top of the famous UT Tower where they set off fireworks and ate cake.

Come May there will be in-game graduations. Inspired by the aforementioned Japanese elementary school, Boston University seniors Rudy Raveendran and Warren Patridge created "Quaranteen U." This is a new server specifically made to host a Class of 2020 graduation for students from hundreds of different universities. 706 students from 278 institutions have signed up in the last week, and one mom has already emailed Raveendran asking how she can get an in-game seat to this massive ceremony on May 22nd.

The boom of servers has inspired others to quickly organize around them, like Jasper Ty, a Drexel University freshman, who recently recorded and uploaded a Zoom presentation where he ranks the top five college campus builds. "I have heard people call me a college Minecraft server connoisseur," he says. Spurred by friends, he is considering starting a series of guided tour videos through Minecraft campuses.

Nearly all builders say that they will leave their projects with a newfound appreciation for campus architecture, especially the spots they never visited or overlooked. "It makes me feel like I took this for granted," Jan Rubio, a UT freshman, says. "Especially knowing that people have toiled to recreate these views and these buildings," adds Jasper Ty.

It's true that people have toiled, especially inside the BU build. Last week, Will Pine, a BU junior, journeyed through the deserted BU campus snapping reference photos for the building team, making special note to capture emergency evacuation maps on each floor of the engineering building: they double as well-measured blueprints. On other build Discords, students shared floor plan PDFs that fill in their blindspots for reference photos or memory. Builders can get caught up in small details; a pair of Girl Scouts selling cookies at a crosswalk in the University of Minnesota, or Domino the Cat lounging outside the UT student union building. University of Washington builders went as far as creating a "Building Standards" channel on Discord to formalize road widths, the variety of wood for signs, and the color of concrete blocks used in brutalist constructions.

I won't be walking through Oberlin College's Wilder Bowl or Terrell Library anytime soon, and my memory will inevitably erase details of the spaces I spent years in. A campus build server could be a mind palace for me, as it has been for others. "There have been some parts of [the Penncraft] campus where I can stand there and I can feel like I'm standing in the same place in real life, or at least I get the same brainwaves," Makarious Chung says, remembering a particular frozen courtyard puddle that he slid around on one day. In a moment of new and tragic memories, many students are searching for familiarity. That courtyard is now constructed in the server.

The server boom can be measured. Mitch Smith, the managing director of Minecraft server hosting service Shockbyte, has seen demand for Minecraft servers spike five times higher than their normal daily orders, starting on March 12th ( the day after the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic). Beyond providing servers to colleges, Smith said in an email that the company's Shockbyte for Education program has begun hosting servers for "scout groups, kindergartens, homeschooling parents, daycares, and summer camps." But the graduating class of 2020 have a unique relationship to the game. We grew up with Minecraft updates from middle school to today, the game getting more complex as we aged. Most interviewed students purchased Minecraft during early alpha development, and returning to it now, in their childhood bedrooms, is like returning to an old toy - one with no real endgame.

"I have heard people call me a college Minecraft server connoisseur."

"If I have an indefinite bit of free time that might end whenever, I would want something I could just play and stop playing whenever I want," Jay Gibbs says, speaking about why students are flocking to Minecraft during indefinite self-isolation. Years from now, the spires and statues of Quaranteen U might still stand tall. Students might be playing capture the flag in the Frankensteined mix of campuses below. But these servers aren't collegiate graveyards; they are small wonders currently under construction.

The Berklee School of Music campus build is constructed on a strange lie: some blocks that players see are actually disguised sand. In Minecraft, players can construct a few half-block slabs, but Berklee E-Sports Club President Marc Yu wanted their campus to have slabs of terracotta, glass, and other materials that Minecraft didn't offer. To get around this, the Berklee builders created dozens of "falling sand" entities in-game that they could re-skin as building materials. Many details of the Berklee build are, technically speaking, a series of sandcastles that are falling apart and being reconstituted almost imperceptibly quickly thanks to the ingenuity of students. Builders like Yu have created an anti-Ozymandias, as their sandcastles will live on as long as the server chugs forward.

For me, there have been many times when Minecraft has been more reliable than Oberlin College. I hope that won't be the case for graduation. When the world becomes safer, I want to travel back to the town and campus that has meant so much to me and hold commencement in-person. But this May, I might walk across a blocky stage in Quaranteen U to receive my Oberlin diploma. According to the sign-ups, my avatar will be standing beside nursing school seniors, business school seniors, seniors from my hometown college, as well as Canadian and Turkish universities. When I walk across the stage, I will be proud to be with the Class of 2020 in whatever strange and ragtag form that takes.

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Campus is closed, so college students are rebuilding their schools in Minecraft

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The day before University of Pennsylvania students were told that their college commencement would be held online, junior Andrew Guo thought of an alternative to holding the address over Zoom. Students could have a "Hey Day" and graduation inside Minecraft, just as a Japanese elementary school had organized days earlier.

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Incorporate as many pieces of the traditional ritual as possible-- recorded speeches from principals, student chosen teacher spokesperson,Music performances etc...

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Incorporate as many pieces of the traditional ritual as possible-- recorded speeches from principals, student chosen teacher spokesperson,Music performances etc...

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Planning for a Virtual Graduation Ceremony

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Planning for a Virtual Graduation Ceremony

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Planning for a Virtual Graduation Ceremony

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We know that graduation ceremonies are critically important to the student experience, but when a virtual format is called for, they can be difficult to achieve. Whether it's for a kindergarten graduation, a high school diploma, or any other major milestone in between, this guide includes tips and best practices for holding commencement ceremonies in a virtual learning world.

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Due to the cancellations surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., many states and thousands of schools systems and universities have been forced to cancel traditional ceremonies in favor of virtual graduation. Students who've spent their whole lives are now being given online options or postponements that may not have the same, literally, pomp and circumstance. But we're here to help you plan something that, while not replacing the original, might be, in its own way, memorable.

Please know this: By writing this, I'm in no way minimizing the grief associated with these changes. I'm devastated for my family and friends who can't gather in person to celebrate the class of 2020's accomplishments. But during this time, we can still make plans, and have something new to look forward to. Even if it's virtual.

Because in many ways, our "new normal" is going to be a lot more virtual get-togethers. We're already doing work calls online, and friends are gathering for virtual coffee and happy hours. Why not a big family reunion online? With decorations and cake?

It might not be what you originally wanted, but it's better than moping. Mope now. Grieve. Be mad and sad. And then, let's plan some parties.

Plan A Virtual Party

While everyone is still isolating, you have some time to plan a virtual party. Keep it around your same graduation time, Get your cap and gown together, order some decorations for delivery, and send out evites to your entire family and friends list. The more the merrier! Group parties too!

During these times, it's important to support local businesses. Call your local party shop and see if they're open at all. They might be, and they might be able to do a curbside pickup of decorations. Mail them to your guest list! If they aren't, online suppliers can send you orders, and importantly, send orders to your invited guests too! Some online party supplies like Shindigz and Party City have huge selections of decor.

We especially love these giant photo cutouts ... everyone can have a graduate to pose with!

Use an online invitation service like Evite, pick a day and time for everyone to gather together (they have lots of online tools you can use as well). Have everyone make or get the graduate's favorite foods or desserts (or picky Aunt Karen can make her own favorites and you won't have to eat them).

Get Grandma On Zoom

I can hear the indignant yells now, from all the grandparents. "We know what to do online!" I know you're much savvier than the media makes you out to be, everyone! As a family, choose a video conferencing system like group Facetime or Zoom, and get everyone trained on it. You can have dozens of people on at once! If your friends and family are on Facebook, you can use that conferencing as well.

RELATED: All of our Coronavirus Content

Virtual graduation won't replace a real in-person graduation. And we hope once self-isolation is lifted, all of the graduates are able to get real hugs from their loved ones. But in the meantime, a virtual graduation party could be just the thing to give our anxious minds something to do.

Just think of the fun screenshots you can get of Grandma and Aunt Karen during your virtual graduation party, safe in their houses.

Visit our special coronavirus article page.

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Virtual Graduation Party Ideas: Get Grandma On Zoom, Order Decorations, and More

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Due to the cancellations surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., many states and thousands of schools systems and universities have been forced to cancel traditional ceremonies in favor of virtual graduation. Students who've spent their whole lives are now being given online options or postponements that may not have the same, literally, pomp and circumstance.

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NEWBERG, Ore. - Students were supposed to get dressed up and hit the dance floor Saturday. Instead, they hit the living room floor. The Newberg High School prom was canceled due to statewide coronavirus restriction. Students didn't let that stop them from celebrating. They held a virtual prom instead.

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Nationwide TeenProm Hosted by Teen Vogue

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Nationwide TeenProm Hosted by Teen Vogue

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On Saturday, May 16, Teen Vogue will celebrate the high school classes of 2020 with the __Teen Vogue Virtual Prom__ in an effort to bring some joy and normalcy to you high school students who are missing out on educational milestones at a time that they expected to be among the proudest and most exciting of their school experience. In the weeks leading up to the big night, Teen Vogue and our Virtual Prom Committee will help you prep for the big night at home by featuring daily prom-focused content — styling advice, makeup tutorials, dance prep, and DIY tips — on site, on Instagram, on TikTok, and in Virtual Prom newsletters.

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You Are Cordially Invited to Teen Vogue’s Virtual Prom

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Teen Vogue is celebrating high school classes of 2020 with a virtual prom experience happening on Zoom.

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Dwyer High School student holds virtual prom

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“We’re all going to do a huge group FaceTime. I’ll put on music and we’ll go in the expensive dresses and tuxes that we already bought to get ready for prom,” she says. “I tweeted and was just like, ‘This is what’s going to happen. It’s going to be in my living room, you guys can send me a song for the playlist and that will be your ticket. You can invite whoever, I don’t really care because we’re all just going to be on a group FaceTime.'”

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How High Schoolers Are Planning Online Prom Parties Amid Coronavirus

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As schools across the U.S. shut down, high schoolers are having to come to terms with the possibility that their proms will be canceled.

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Ask students to create a video to wish their peers well on their next journey. The videos could be posted on a school youtube channel for all students to access.

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Using Remote Control Robots for Graduation

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Using Remote Control Robots for Graduation

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Business Breakthrough University (BBT) in Tokyo, Japan held a virtual graduation ceremony due to the coronavirus.

Students called into the ceremony using video-conferencing tool Zoom, and they were displayed on mobile robots.

Events including graduations and weddings have been moved online to "Minecraft," "Animal Crossing," and other online games since the coronavirus spread throughout the world.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Students at Business Breakthrough University in Tokyo didn't get a traditional ceremony due to the coronavirus, but they had the next best thing. Using "Newme" mobile robots with a tablet to host a Zoom call, graduates had the experience of walking across the stage and accepting their diplomas at the Hotel Grand Palace in Tokyo, virtually on March 28.

As COVID-19 has infected more than a million people and closed schools around the world, students have found creative ways to recreate cancelled events. A group of eight elementary school students held a virtual graduation ceremony in the popular game "Minecraft." Students at the University of Pennsylvania were inspired by that ceremony, and recreated their entire campus in "Minecraft," with plans to hold graduation and other events online.

Virtual gatherings have become more common, but BBT University took a novel approach, using remotely controlled robots to make the ceremony more physical. Here's what it was like.

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A Japanese University used remote-controlled robots to hold a virtual graduation

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Business Breakthrough University (BBT) in Tokyo, Japan held a virtual graduation ceremony due to the coronavirus. Students called into the ceremony using video-conferencing tool Zoom, and they were displayed on mobile robots. Events including graduations and weddings have been moved online to "Minecraft," "Animal Crossing," and other online games since the coronavirus spread throughout the world.

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One teacher's YouTube goodbye to her students

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One teacher's YouTube goodbye to her students

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"It's a fun way to, at the very least, interact with each other," said Ralph Drake, a junior visual media arts major at Emerson who launched the school's "Minecraft" server on March 13. "It's collaborative at a time when we are so separated."

At Berklee College of Music and Boston University, an ever-growing group of students is rebuilding their urban campus block-by-block in the game's creative mode, which offers players unlimited resources and no restrictions. Builders from both schools use Google Maps' street and satellite views to piece together the outside of the buildings, and their memories and pictures for the inside.

The Berklee reconstruction includes towering campus buildings and dorms on Massachusetts Avenue, Commonwealth Avenue, and Boylston Street, but also the stores, restaurants, apartment buildings, and hangout spots in between and on Newbury Street. Students hope to finish making the dense chunk of Boston from Hynes Convention Center to Fenway within the next few months.

Berklee Esports president Marc Yu had previously made a handful of buildings with the help of two members, but progress slowed before the shutdown.

"We had started building the whole thing last fall, but we didn't get too far," said Yu, a junior film scoring major, who has moved back home to San Francisco. "We started working on it again when all these people became interested."

More than 70 people joined the existing realm after Yu advertised it on students' private Facebook group, Overheard at Berklee College of Epstein Didn't Kill Himself, on March 12. The Berklee realm, a premade platform for multiple users that costs $7.99 per month, is paid for by the school's Esports club.

"It's kind of funny that kids are doing this," said Levi Cooper, a freshman film-scoring major at Berklee. "Still, it's a good way not to do music for a second and 'see' people."

Members of the Boston University Gaming Club had been working on the BU campus reconstruction as early as last summer. But in the last week or so alone, the project has gained momentum. After club member Jithvan Ariyaratne shared the server and its live map on the nationwide Facebook group, Zoom Memes for Self Quaranteens, the number of dedicated builders tripled to 15.

"It's kicked off at such a faster pace now that students are not on campus," said Ariyaratne, a junior computer science major still in Boston.

Together, players have completed the BU Bridge, the facades of multiple buildings on Commonwealth Avenue, and a large portion of the campus's east side.

A second world within the BU server is dedicated to setting the stage for a virtual graduation, complete with a stage and chairs. Meanwhile, another pair of BU students is building a separate "Minecraft" server devoted to hosting a nationwide graduation ceremony. Via their website, quaranteen.university, they're inviting students and families to sign up for it. As of Thursday, they'd gotten the attention of more than 500 students from 219 schools.

The "Minecraft" projects are healing for some.

Aubrey Mixon, a music therapy major at Berklee who has retreated to her grandparents' home in Naples, Fla., spends up to four hours per day toiling away at buildings to keep herself occupied. Since joining the server two weeks ago, she even found the blueprints and floor plans for Berklee's largest building, 160 Massachusetts Ave., online to aid her building efforts.

"As much as college can be stressful, the Berklee campus is really special to me and to a lot of people," she said. "To be able to re-create it when we're not able to be there and appreciate it with fellow classmates is just amazing. It's also kind of our way of coping with being away, with this whole coronavirus situation."

At Emerson, Ralph Drake, who has remained in Boston, built his own server for Emerson students in two days. Drake constructed his server in the game's survival mode, where players evade threats, like mobs and fires, with limited materials. Through a private Facebook group, he encouraged students to rebuild dorm buildings (though this is more difficult with the threadbare resources available in survival) and socialize.

"It's interesting to see the ecosystems people create and what they do," he said. "It just seems like we have all this time."

As one of the best-selling video games of all time, "Minecraft" was overtaken around five years ago by newer games, like "Fortnite" and novel "Animal Crossing" releases. But over the past year, it has seen a resurgence, boosted at least in part by Youtuber PewDiePie's video of himself playing "Minecraft" in August.

"For a while, it became not cool to play 'Minecraft' - cringe, you could say," said Robert Wilson, the Emerson Esports president. "Now though, it's one of the only ways to stay connected."

Diti Kohli can be reached at diti.kohli@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ditikohli_.

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College students re-create campuses and plan virtual graduation, on 'Minecraft' - The Boston Globe

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"It's a fun way to, at the very least, interact with each other," said Ralph Drake, a junior visual media arts major at Emerson who launched the school's "Minecraft" server on March 13. "It's collaborative at a time when we are so separated."

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This can be done via the Engage platform from Immersive VR Education. Engage is a free download and runs on the Rift, Vive, WMR, Index and now even on Quest. It can also be run directly on a PC in a desktop mode.​ Am happy to help you on this if you are interested Craig Vezina craig@zschool.org

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Craig Vezina - Executive Director - The Z 17 Collective | LinkedIn

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View Craig Vezina's profile on LinkedIn, the world's largest professional community. Craig has 6 jobs listed on their profile. See the complete profile on LinkedIn and discover Craig's connections and jobs at similar companies.

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YouTube live or IG live the ceremony with only seniors present. I recommend personally inviting guests into whichever platform you choose so it is not "zoombombed".

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YouTube live or IG live the ceremony with only seniors present. I recommend personally inviting guests into whichever platform you choose so it is not "zoombombed".

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From now until the end of the year, feature seniors on social media pages, highlighting their achievements with photos.

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Without realizing it, high school seniors throughout central Ohio might have already experienced their final days of school together. Officials with area school districts say they're committed to salvaging what milestones they can for the Class of 2020 - but, ultimately, their efforts depend on when Gov. Mike DeWine lifts statewide restrictions that remain in place to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.

Before she enrolled in the criminal justice program at Tolles Career & Technical Center in Plain City two years ago, there were plenty of times that Lilian Sharp questioned whether she would graduate.

School wasn't the easiest for her. Sometimes, she faced discipline. But as a high-achieving senior, the 18-year-old had pushed away those doubts - until now.

School buildings across Ohio have been closed since March 17 and will remain shuttered through at least May 1, and possibly longer, to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Gov. Mike DeWine has prohibited gatherings larger than 10 people, such as graduations, indefinitely.

Diplomas aren't in question - a law that DeWine signed last month requires schools to award diplomas to any senior who was on track to graduate before the abrupt closures. But for Sharp, who lives in Hilliard, the milestone is about much more than the certificate.

"I succeeded because of the people at my school who built me up," Sharp said. "They know how hard it was and how hard I worked. I want to thank them. I want them to be able to see me walk across that stage."

>> This story is being provided free as a public service to our readers during the coronavirus outbreak. You can find all our stories on coronavirus here. Please support local journalism by subscribing to The Columbus Dispatch at subscribe.dispatch.com.

Sharp isn't alone. Throughout Ohio and nationwide, members of the Class of 2020 are lamenting missing the milestones they've anticipated their entire lives: prom, graduation, spring sports seasons, final performances and senior class trips, to name a few.

"Instead of walking the halls and eating lunch with my friends, I have to FaceTime them to even see their faces and have a real conversation," said Sarah Morbitzer, 18, a senior at Hamilton Township High School.

Without realizing it, they might have already experienced their last day of school together, Morbitzer said.

The senior class also is grappling with expressing those feelings in the midst of a pandemic, when doing so might be misinterpreted as being insensitive.

"In light of everything happening, we know the things that feel important to us might seem really small, but they are affecting us," said Isabella Gonzales, 18, a senior at Columbus North International School.

Gonzales was one of three students who spoke to an online Columbus Board of Education meeting Tuesday, via a videochat. The students noted that their lives have been flanked by two of the nation's most fearful moments, as they and classmates were born in the aftermath of 9/11.

"We just want to feel listened to," Gonzales said. "Collectively, the Class of 2020 is mourning the loss of our senior year."

Officials with Columbus and other school districts said they're exploring alternatives to canceling events entirely, especially graduation. Some have suggested hosting virtual ceremonies or postponing official recognition until it's safe to gather again.

"It's our job, as adults, to ensure you have those moments," Columbus board member Tina Pierce said. "You deserve it."

Ultimately, most changes depend on whether school resumes after May 1, area school officials said.

DeWine has said it's very possible that students won't return this school year - something that 14 states already have ordered and another three have recommended.

Some districts with proms scheduled for late April, such as Groveport Madison, have already postponed or rescheduled the events. On Thursday, the Ohio High School Athletic Association released a tentative, condensed spring sports schedule for May, contingent on school resuming that month.

"We know this is not ideal and we wish we had answers for everything," Reynoldsburg Superintendent Melvin Brown said in a letter to families. "Right now, all we can do is continue to abide by the governor's orders and prepare to be flexible as needed."

In the meantime, some districts are honoring the Class of 2020 in less-traditional ways.

Hilliard is working with the city to hang its senior sports banners downtown because spring sports seasons are in limbo.

Pickerington, Reynoldsburg and Northmor in Morrow County are regularly featuring seniors on district social media pages, highlighting their achievements with photos.

It's a simple gesture that can go a long way, said math teacher Lisa Keddie, who has been the adviser for Northmor's senior classes for 10 years. Her niece, Juliana DiTullo, a 17-year-old senior, approached her with the idea.

After years of hard work, including planning for their lives after graduation, this is usually the time when seniors can finally start celebrating, Keddie said.

At Northmor, that includes a "senior week" in May, featuring a picnic and a panel with the incoming freshman class, to offer them advice. Another highlight is a buffet dinner banquet with their families. There, the seniors watch a slideshow of memories and receive a custom newspaper made by class officers to commemorate the group.

Now, much of the planning is in limbo.

"Believe it or not, a lot of students really want to go back to school right now," DiTullo joked. "We're all trying to stay positive. Right now, there's still a chance we can finish our senior years together and make some memories."

awidmanneese@dispatch.com

@AlissaWidman

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Ohio high schools still hope to honor Class of 2020 as coronavirus derails year-end events

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Without realizing it, high school seniors throughout central Ohio might have already experienced their final days of school together. Officials with area school districts say they're committed to salvaging what milestones they can for the Class of 2020 - but, ultimately, their efforts depend on when Gov.