Malibu Seniors Reunite At Drive-In Movie Night

MALIBU, CA — “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

That immortal line from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” repeated under senior yearbook photos the world over, played out from a big screen over the Chili Cook Off Lot in Malibu on Saturday. It’s been a hard year for those seniors, but this spring, the Parent Grad Committee is trying its best to help the Malibu High School class of 2021 stop and look around.

On Saturday, the same day Malibu parents offered emotional testimony over why they want their own school district, a group of Malibu seniors enjoyed a very fun day. The grad committee sponsored a drive-in movie night at the cook-off lot, and the senior class, just a month and a half away from graduating, elected to watch Ferris ditch school, over other movies. With seniors returning to campus this week, committee co-chair Karin Al-Hardan said many of the roughly 95 seniors were seeing each other face-to-face for the first time in almost a year.

“Because the kids hadn’t seen each other for so long, we came up with the idea of doing something every month that would work within the COVID restrictions, and would let the kids do something together and be separated, but enjoy a shared experience,” she said.

Thanks to generous sponsorship from all over the community, the committee has planned exciting events for each month. In February, parents delivered candy grams to all seniors - by hand if they were in town, and by mail if they were away. In March, about 50 seniors hiked around two trails near Solstice Canyon, where life-size cutouts of MHS Principal Patrick Miller, and various other teachers, popped up to greet them.

“Our principal Patrick Miller - we had him do a few poses for a life-size cutout, so we did one of him in hiking gear, one of him dressed like a shark, and then one of him in a traditional principal’s pose, and we had those set up on the trails,” Al-Hardin told Patch. “And then we had about 10 teachers who emailed us a headshot, and then we had their heads blown up really large, and those posted those all over the trails as well…[the kids] thought it was the funniest thing.”

This month, in addition to the movie night, teachers delivered yard signs to the students’ yards Saturday morning, and before “Ferris Bueller,” a surprise video of teachers lip syncing to Natasha Bedingfield’s “Unwritten” was a smash hit.

In May, Al-Hardin says the committee is planning a socially distanced picnic at Calamigos Ranch, which will serve as a sort of stand-in for prom. On June 4, the seniors’ last day, the committee is planning a parent parade in which seniors will drive along the street near the school while parents cheer them on. A week later, students will be able to decorate their graduation caps and take photos at a “Caps and Snaps” event at the Malibu Lumber Yard.

Unlike last year, Al-Hardin says the school is tentatively planning for an in-person graduation ceremony limited to members of their household. Hopefully, after so much struggle, seniors where they can throw their decorated caps in the air, and stop and look around at all their friends in person.