Celebrating Senior Moments Sunrise to Sunset

Senior Skip Day, Senior Assassin, and Senior Sunrise. These are some of the events that many seniors enjoy every year. While these events have maintained popularity, PHS Principal David Yoshihara plans to implement new ones this year.
Cap and Gown Day is one of the new senior events that will be carried out this year.
“The broad idea around this is that when the seniors get their cap and gown, they could do something at the elementary schools,” Yoshihara said.
Yoshihara said that during Cap and Gown Day the seniors will have the opportunity to be with the elementary school students and talk with them about the path that they took from elementary school to high school.
Senior class president Dean Olliphant said that if you’re a senior who went to Wildwood, you would go back to Wildwood and talk with some of the fourth and fifth graders about their experience through middle school and high school.
“If you didn’t attend any of the Piedmont Elementary schools, then you will be able to pick which of the three elementary schools you want to visit,” Olliphant said.
Yoshihara mentioned that another senior event that may be happening this year is the Passing of the Colors.
“There will be a day where the seniors will meet, and they will give the eighth graders something of theirs that is the color that the seniors are that year,” Yoshihara said.
Yoshihara said that he thinks one of the district’s goals is to create a community to thrive and by implementing the Passing of Colors, the high school and middle school will create more of a connection with each other.
Yoshihara believes that creating these new senior events will also help to create a fun and entertaining environment on campus.
“I’d like students who come to school to want to come to school rather than ‘I have to go to school,’” Yoshihara said.
PHS senior parent representative Sally Baack stated that by having casual senior-only events such as Senior Sunrise and Senior Sunset, all the seniors will hang out more for the last time and talk to more classmates than they might normally do.
Olliphant said that there are non-PHS affiliated senior events that are happening as well.
“We were trying to do a bonfire at Ocean Beach, but it looks like we’re going to do it at Joaquin Miller which will be a lot of fun,” Olliphant said.
Senior Class Vice President Juliana DeYoung said that another very popular non-PHS affiliated event is Senior Assassin.
Senior Sunset is another senior event that will be implemented as well by ASB.
DeYoung said that Senior Sunset will happen on June third, an event similar to Senior Sunrise, which happened in the beginning of the school year.
Along with Senior Sunset, an event for the seniors on the last day of school may be created as well.
“We did something called the first last day for the seniors. On the first day of school, we gave all the seniors donuts, and on the last day of school we’re thinking of doing something on that final bell,” Yoshihara said.
Yoshihara also said that the PHS Parent’s Club has been involved in planning senior events this year as well.
Baack said that the PHS Parent’s Club has been focused this year on implementing and supporting more fun events for everyone at PHS.
DeYoung hopes that these senior events will carry over into the 2026 graduating class and that students will continue to enjoy them.