Mike Parker: Coronavirus shutdown leaves a trail of broken dreams

Most of us have heard the term “unintended consequence.” The term refers to the fallout, usually unanticipated, of an action or situation. Two of my older grandchildren are being impacted by unintended consequences of the coronavirus shutdown on high school and college students.

Jaxen, my oldest grandson, is ending his senior year at Clayton High School in a way no one anticipated. I have no doubt he will receive his diploma and be an official high school graduate. Unfortunately, he will enjoy none of the trappings that usually accompany completing the first significant step in the educational process.

As I was trying to make sure I saved all the right dates, I checked the line-up for activities as Clayton’s Class of 2020 crossed their high school finish line. They were to have a Senior Breakfast, practice for graduation, and then be honored at evening commencement ceremonies on May 29. I am sure none of these things will take place on May 29 – and I am not certain they will ever take place.

High school graduations are nothing new. My guess is most of us have been through high school commencement. However, this year’s seniors will miss out. So will their parents and grandparents. One irony is Jaxen intentionally planned not to finish high school at the end of first semester because, as he told me, “I wanted the state to pay for a few more of my college classes.” He is a dual enrollment student who also attends Johnston Community College.

Like so many other seniors this year, he will complete his work – and his college classes – and then drift into the next phase of his life and education.

Courtney, my oldest granddaughter, is another casualty of the shutdown. She graduated from D.H. Conley in June 2017. She, too, was a dual enrollment student who attended Pitt Community College. After high school graduation, she enrolled in Pitt’s nursing program to study to become a Registered Nurse, like her mother.

She has done hundreds of clinical hours, taken test after test, completed assignment on top of assignment. She was supposed to be “pinned,” the most personal and emotional ceremony for nursing students, on April 30. She was set to graduate on Wednesday, May 6. I had saved that date in hopes that she would be able to secure tickets so her grandmother and I could attend. She was nearing for a rite of passage that would take her into the workforce.

Now the process she must navigate will be more complicated. One hurdle every would-be nurse must overcome is Nursing Boards – NCLEX. But the company that gives the nursing boards shut down all testing facilities. Last I heard, Pearson was going to open 63 testing centers across the entire country – an average of 1.26 testing sites per state. I also heard North Carolina would be allotted three testing sites.

Before a nurse can be licensed, she or he must be fingerprinted, as well. Where can a person go to be fingerprinted since the local law enforcement agencies have stopped providing that service for the present? This situation presents one more obstacle to overcome in order for Courtney and her cohort to obtain nursing licenses.

Yet the need for nurses has never been greater, so the State Nursing Board is reinstating the “graduate nurse” designation so these newly-prepared nurses can enter service to their communities. Until these new nurses can take NCLEX and be fingerprinted to enable them to obtain full licensure, they will practice under the supervision of a licensed R.N. Courtney has already accepted a position at our local hospital.

However, hundreds – perhaps thousands – of high school and college students who are finishing their schooling this year are going to enter the job market when our local, state, and national economies are essentially closed for business. Many “graduating” college students will end up unemployed for no telling how long.

I have shared these unfortunate effects on my grandchildren, but multiplied thousands of students, parents, and grandparents are going through the same gut-wrenching dismay because of missing out on the formalities of these rites of passage.

All we can do is celebrate the successes of these students within our families and help them through this period of bleak disappointment.

Mike Parker is a columnist for Neuse News. You can reach him at mparker16@gmail.com.