As the three o’clock prayer echoed through the halls of Archbishop Riordan High School on March 5, teachers began office hours as per usual and prepared for an Archdiocesan Educators’ Convocation the following day. 

Students walked down Ocean Avenue, high fiving their Crusader Brothers as they thought out plans for their three day weekend. No one would’ve guessed that it was their last day in school.

On the afternoon of March 6, it was reported that the parents of a Riordan student tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19). The Riordan Administration, led by President Dr. Andrew Currier and Principal Tim Reardon made the immediate decision to cancel the baseball and basketball activities for that evening. 

News of the cancellation came as a shock to the team’s supporters and the opposing team of De La Salle High School in Concord. During the announcement, the Administration also announced the closure of the school for Monday, March 9 as a deep cleaning of the campus would be conducted with classes resuming on Tuesday morning. 

During the early morning hours of March 9, Dr. Currier and Principal Reardon reported that a Riordan student had tested positive for COVID-19. Within the announcement, The administration stated that a decision to close the school building beyond March 9 would be made that afternoon. 

At 4:00pm, The Riordan Administration, after consulting with the Archdiocese of San Francisco and the San Francisco Health Department, made the decision to cancel classes and school related activities for two weeks, with hopes of resuming classes on March 23. 

With that announcement came the cancellation of the Varsity’s basketball team’s road to a State Championship, the Sophomore Retreat, and the annual Mother-Son Dance.  

Dean of Academics Michael O’Brien was going to lead the Sophomore Retreat and stated,  “It’s devastating for the program. It looks like we’re not going to be able to pull it off this year.” O’Brien then went on to say that the retreat program has been hit the hardest from the closure. 

One day after the announcement of the two week closure, Superintendent of The Archdiocese of San Francisco, Pamela Lyons, announced that all Archdiocesan schools would be closed through March 25 with the hope of returning to campus on March 26. This extended the closure of Riordan by an extra three days, but with it took out the plans for the Junior Retreat. 

As cases of COVID-19 continued to rapidly increase, Mayor London Breed of San Francisco made an announcement on March 16 that San Francisco and five other counties would have a shelter-in-place order until April 7. This order would later be extended to the beginning of May. 

On the first day back from Easter Break, The Superintendent of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, Pamala Lyons, officially announced what a majority of students had feared, Archbishop Riordan High School wouldn’t reopen for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year, bringing the historic school year to a close, but many are still looking forward to another historic year in the fall. 

With the announcement, the Riordan Administration made some other announcements of their own in regards to certain aspects of the school. At the time of writing this article, The Class of 2020 will have an in-person graduation, scheduled for June 27. Though grateful to have a graduation ceremony, Frankie Ryan ’20, stated “I feel like I lost so much of my senior year. I am hopeful though that the school will have a ceremony that we will never forget and this virus will bring us closer as a class.”

In an attempt to keep school spirit alive, the Student Parliament will host the first ever online Crusader Games starting on May 4. The games are expected to include two weeks of fun activities in order to earn points to win the Chaminade Cup. 

Though Archbishop Riordan High School won’t be returning for the rest of the year, school spirit among the Crusaders is alive.