On the day before winter break this year at Communications High School, the seniors became the teachers, signaling the revival of one of many senior traditions.

The Class of 2022 participated in the annual Senior Switch Day, a tradition in which students assume the roles of members of the CHS faculty. Seniors create mock lessons for a class period, such as a quiz about the teacher they switched with or a friendly Just Dance competition.

Senior Samantha Skolnick of Hazlet was one of several seniors who acted as principal James Gleason, handing out “detentions” and observing the performance of other “teachers.”

Skolnick “fired” two seniors over the course of the day, one for a supposed “data breach” after pretending that the coding class crashed the CHS servers and the other for abandoning their class.

While becoming principal for a day may seem like a daunting task, it was no concern for Skolnick who had planned to be Gleason for quite some time.

“I always remember watching other seniors be Gleason during Senior Switch Day years ago and thinking, ‘Senior year, that’s what I’ll do!’ because it looked like so much fun,” Skolnick said. “Who else can say they were principal of their high school for 85 minutes?”

In addition to Senior Switch Day, the senior class also participated in Friendsgiving, a buffet breakfast put together by the senior class council. Senior and Class of 2022 council member Kacie Farrell of Middletown helped organize the event.

“It was really, really successful,” Farrell said. “We had a lot of food and a lot of great donations from both the class and the PSFA. We were really grateful for that.”

Senior Isabella Ji of Holmdel participated in Senior Switch Day and attended Friendsgiving.

“I think these events are important, and even more so because we missed a whole year and a half of these events due to COVID-19,” Ji said. “[Friendsgiving] was a great period for all of us to relax and just reminisce about what we’ve done or gone through at CHS.”

The senior class was in the middle of their sophomore year when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. They missed their school-run junior prom, had to host a smaller Coffeehouse than previous years and were forced to navigate the college admissions process through a changing world. Nevertheless, the return of these traditions brought back an important sense of normalcy to their high school experience.

“I think the students at this school work really, really, really hard,” Class of 2022 advisor and CHS Spanish teacher Karen Britto said. “The senior traditions are a rite of passage and celebration of all their accomplishments.”