Class Of 2020: Thousand Oaks Senior Bree Martin Copes With COVID Closure By Keeping In Touch With Friends

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Bree Martin is a senior at Thousand Oaks High School, excelling both in the classroom and in competition while making friends and memories along the way.

"My experience at Thousand Oaks High School has been amazing," she said. "I've met my best friends at TO, and I hope they'll be lifelong."

After working hard for the past three years, Martin, like so many others, was looking forward to spending her spring semester enjoying her final months in high school.

But that all changed six weeks ago because of the coronavirus pandemic.

"I feel that senior year is more of a checklist, because everything is basically for the last time," Martin said. "It's my last first day of normal school, so you check that off. Your last homecoming, check that off. Your last football season, and unfortunately for the class of 2020, none of us get to really check off any of those things."

Now Martin and her friends are doing the best they can, keeping in touch through technology and trying to salvage whatever they can of their senior year. Martin said that with each passing day she's coping better and better knowing that this experience will one day make her stronger.

"We're all in this together, and we will get through this," she said. "I still had 3.5 amazing years at a high school with my best friends and doing the sports and activities that I truly loved. Looking back, I feel like I'll be fulfilled with what I accomplished at TO."

Bree said that while the district is planning a virtual graduation, she and her classmates were still hoping to put together some sort of final hurrah.

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