LYNN — A new principal, a longtime coach’s retirement, an invitation of 100 students to “Hamilton,” and displays of passion by both current students and alumni show how much has happened at Lynn Classical since this year’s seniors came into the school in 2016.
In the winter of 2017, Classical saw Tiba Faraj, a recent graduate and Iraqi refugee, accompany Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) to President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress. Faraj attended the session in opposition of Trump’s executive order banning refugees and immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries. This was after she had seen her father shot and left permanently disabled while working for an American-backed development company in Iraq in 2006, and after her family’s subsequent flight first to Jordan and then the U.S.
Later that year, another Classical alumnus, MBTA worker Michael Quintana, delivered 25 backpacks and various school supplies to Classical students, a show of appreciation to the school. He said at the time of the donations, “My house almost looks like Walmart.”
Then-current Classical students also showed passion for their school that year. In sports, the volleyball team won the Lynn City Volleyball Tournament, the football team went 8-2, and Tom Grassa, who had led the boy’s basketball program for 31 years — and to back-to-back state championships in 1993 and 1994 — retired.
During the latter half of the 2017-2018 school year, Classical students put on a well-received production of “The Diary of Anne Frank.” And at the Lynn Classical High School Story Slam, a display of storytelling and skilled prose, senior Adrian Marquez took home $500 after winning the event, telling a story about skipping school and being caught on video tumbling down the stairs during his great escape.
Marquez confessed to then-Principal Eugene Constantino, who told him he would not be punished since he took responsibility for his actions. Constantino, so beloved by students such as Marquez after leading the school for nine years, retired just prior to the 2018-19 school year and moved to the St. Mary’s administration.
Closing out the 2017-2018 school year, graduation speaker Capt. Alexander Mora of the U.S. Marine Corps, who graduated from Classical in 1999, told seniors, “No one is going to give you anything. Obstacles will be put in front of you, and they won’t be easy to overcome. But you will.”
In the 2018-2019 school year, 100 students were invited to watch the play “Hamilton” at the Boston Opera House. The Broadway musical was used as a lesson on U.S. history by teacher Gwen Hansen, who had known about the invitation since May, but kept the trip a surprise for her students until the start of the school year.
Ahvianna Elysse, a senior that year, was also one of 15 students selected across all schools to perform before the play, and delivered a spoken-word poem, titled “Sally Hemings” about the lack of diversity of characters when she is reading plays such as “Hamilton.”
“I wrote the poem in three days,” said Elysse at the time. “It was when I started reading about the different characters I could have written about and I kind of realized there was such a lack of women, specifically a lack of black women, and I was just like we definitely had more of a voice at that time so I felt like someone had to do it.”
In March 2019, junior Joseph Severe received the Mass. Humanities Frederick Douglass Award, which includes a $1,000 scholarship given out to students who win the National History Day competition in Stoneham each year. He donated half of the money to his school’s library for a civil rights section, and used a portion of his remaining $500 to buy books for the section. In May, Classical students participated in a recycling program that saw the contamination of Lynn’s recycling stream drop to 14 percent, after it had peaked at 35.6 percent in April 2018.
Last summer, Classical’s Living in Two Worlds Film Festival highlighted the struggles encountered by immigrant students. Students Andrea Argumendo, Wandy Jiminez, Lit Palacio, and Bolaji Odusanya all showed films at the festival, and talked about their experiences coming to the U.S.
“The best part about coming here was that it helped me discover my brave side,” said Palacio, a freshman, who immigrated from the Dominican Republic.
And this school year, while schools across Massachusetts have been rocked by the COVID-19 pandemic, and schools are having students practicing “distance learning,” Classical students have still achieved.
For the second straight year, the Classical swim team was crowned city champions after the Rams won first place in nine of 12 events at the Tech pool. Amy Dunn took over as principal this year, saying, “There’s a lot about this school that’s wonderful. I defy anyone to come here and conclude that there’s not a good atmosphere here. It’s a very welcoming school.”
The program Bridge for Resilient Youth in Transition rolled out at Classical this past fall, with the aim of transitioning students with mental illnesses back into the classroom, especially students who have been hospitalized, paid for by a four-year $200,000 Comprehensive School Health Services Grant that Lynn Public Schools received through the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health last spring.
