Coronavirus: Texas principal travels 800 miles to visit every graduating senior

A Texas high school principal missed his senior students so much during the coronavirus pandemic, he took a road trip to visit all 612 of them.

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Virdie Montgomery, 66, of Wylie High School, spent more than 80 hours on the road over 12 days to meet with the 612 members of the class of 2020, WFAA reported. By the time he had finished, Montgomery had logged 800 miles.

“I get emotional real easy with my kids,” Wylie told the television station. “And I just didn’t feel like I was doing enough. It just seemed like the right thing to do.”

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So, Montgomery and his wife hopped into their car, armed with Google maps, and set out to contact the graduating seniors.

."She told me I was crazy," Montgomery told WFAA. “I tell you what, that first day, at the end of the first day it felt like I had made a mistake. Because it was hard."

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Montgomery said he gave each senior a Snickers candy bar, just so one day they will look back at their senior year and “snicker.”

“I delivered that joke nearly 600 times," Montgomery told WFAA. “So it’s pretty lame.”

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Montgomery told CNN he would post the names of the streets he would visit, so students had an idea when the principal would be in their area. Montgomery and his wife would begin traveling at 10 a.m. and finish by 5 p.m., the network reported.

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Montgomery said the students’ reactions have been positive.

“You get all kinds of reactions. … I think most of them are glad to see me when I came by,” Montgomery told KXAS. “Of all the history of Wylie High School back to 1901, you’re gonna have the most unique senior year of any group of seniors that ever came about.”

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“It kind of shows people that somebody does care for you out there,” Laura Gurley, a graduating senior, told CNN. “Most principals wouldn’t do that.”

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“I’m a sucker for puns and stuff and that (Snickers joke) was perfect, that was right up my alley,” senior Savannah Skinner told WFAA. “I’m not always in the best mood because it’s been a while since I’ve seen anybody. So, it just brought a smile to my face and it made me really happy.”

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