The last days of Collinwood High School through students’ eyes

The final graduation ceremony of Collinwood High School included two processionals. First hundreds of alumni marched out wearing white and blue school spirit gear. Then came the graduates dressed in their silver caps and gowns—they numbered only 33. 

Many of the alumni attended the historic high school when it was one of the largest in Ohio. Their student body, at 4,000 strong, had access to a plethora of  academic and extracurricular opportunities: Honors classes, marching band, plenty of varsity sports, yearbook and newspaper. The current student body has an average daily attendance of 96. Earlier this school year, when I asked some students what programs they wished the school had, they told me “music and band.” 

Alumni have not been shy at sharing their anger about the closure at board meetings, town halls and on social media—the natural reaction to losing a historic high school that’s anchored a community and shaped young people for generations. 

Current students have their own feelings about the closure. Many are nervous about where they’re going next. And most are sad about leaving friends behind. But they’ve also had far fewer opportunities than many of the alumni who came before them. 

This year, we got to know many of the students and staff at the school, popping in to talk to them about the closure plans and their frustrations and concerns. But as the last weeks approached, we wanted to leave the final chapter up to the students. So we handed 20 students disposable cameras and sent them out to document those last days. 

The photos below were taken by: A’Miracle Pierce, Jayda Vales, Triana White, Na’Myah Scott, Arianna Brown, Shanyia Harp, Alazia Vance, Jaquiline Jovita, and Amber Love. 

Antoinette McCall, an intervention specialist at Collinwood, was an invaluable point person for this project. And big shout out to Dodd Camera’s Cleveland store. They rushed to develop and scan the students’ photos quick enough for us to hang them up during Collinwood’s alumni walkthrough.

Many students took photos of the adults that have shaped them and that, in Triana White’s words, they will “really miss.” Those portraits included everyone from teachers to the school’s lunch ladies.

To us they’re not only sweet photos, most of the people in them posed and smiling, but also reminders that every person at a school has a hand in shaping the young people that move through it.

Many of the photos we received back also showed how Collinwood can feel so empty, one staff member told me.

In some of those photos, the flash reflects off the hallway’s tiled floors creating the feeling it’s underwater. Other photos show how much stuff—textbooks, boxes, papers, and science equipment—will be left when the behemoth building shuts its doors.

The relationships and friendships that both make high school fun and fill it with drama shine through in the photos. A group of 11th grade girls who are all friends participated in the project.

Their cameras all came back to us with photos of each other on them. Jayda, for example, captured Triana laying across a pair of desks in an empty classroom and Triana did the same for Jayda. They’re the kind of pictures only a fellow student could take.

When I first met these students, I asked them what they loved about their high school. They told me about the community — friends who get them, the teachers and coaches who support them and “kept it real.” But also for some of them, Collinwood was not their first choice, they wanted more than the school offered. 

I see those conversations in their pictures: students goofing off in the historic auditorium or showing off their art projects next to empty hallways and trophies won by past generations. 

More information about the pictures

The students took all of these pictures between May 12 and 19. You can see who took each picture, along with some more details about the people and things in them, down below.

1. Goodbye messages drawn by students on a whiteboard in a classroom. Credit: Triana White
2. Antoinette McCall, an intervention specialist at Collinwood High School. Credit: Jaquiline Jovita
3. Lunch ladies. Credit: Alazia Vance
4. Ms. Cummings, the school secretary. Credit: Triana White
5. A teacher at the school. Credit: Shanyia Harp
6. Science teacher Philana Williams. Credit: Alazia Vance
7. An empty hallway. Credit: Na’Myah Scott
8. A senior working on graduation paperwork. Credit: Jaquiline Jovita
9. Collinwood’s “Battle of The Classes.” Credit: Triana White
10. A back room connected to the science classroom. Credit: Jayda Vales
11. Jamie posing for a picture with her art project in the art room. Credit: Jayda Vales
12. Students in the school’s auditorium practicing for graduation. Credit: Na’Myah Scott
13. A student at prom. Credit: Amber Love
14. A student at prom. Credit: Amber Love
15. A student at prom. Credit: Amber Love
16. Devin, a senior in the school’s cafeteria. Credit: Shanyia Harp
17. Students in the gym. Credit: A’Miracle Pierce
18. A mural painted in a hallway. Collinwood students and alumni are known as “Railroaders.” Credit: Triana White
19. A trophy case lining a first-floor hallway. Credit: Shanyia Harp
20. A student posing for a picture. Credit: Alazia Vance
21. Students hanging out in the auditorium. Credit: Alazia Vance
22. A selfie. Credit: Jaquiline Jovita
23. Students hanging out in a hallway. Credit: Arianna Brown
24. Triana White posing for a picture. Credit: Jayda Vales
25. Triana White Mrs. Payne’s classroom. Credit: Arianna Brown
26. Students in a classroom. Credit: A’Miracle Pierce
27. Triana White laying on a table. Credit: Jayda Vales
28. Triana White and John Morales. Credit: Triana White
29. The view of the five points intersection from the steps of Collinwood High School. Credit: Arianna Brown
30. Sunlight streaming into a classroom. Credit: Shanyia Harp