On Sept. 8, 2022, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom passed away at 96- years- old. This marked the end of an era, as she had been the reigning monarch since 1952, making her the longest-serving head of state. Her successor and eldest son King Charles took the throne.

Luna Avolio (11)
Luna Avolio (11) found out during her freshman year in her AP Physics class with Ms. Miller. No one in the class appeared to have strong emotions about the news, and Luna recalls that it was only relevant because there was a British person in the class. While she thinks that the former Queen was “cooler” than King Charles, she felt overall unaffected by the Queen’s death.

”Nobody was particularly distraught over it. We joked earlier in the year that she was immortal … I guess she wasn’t,” Avolio said.

Isabel Murillo (9)
For Isabel Murillo (9), it was shocking. On her way to English class, she heard a kid shout “The Queen died!” and couldn’t believe it was true. In fact, neither could her teacher, and they all took the first moments of class to fact-check on Google. Queen Elizabeth’s death put things into perspective for Isabel, as Queen Elizabeth being England’s head of throne had been a constant throughout her life.

“Things have to come to an end. It really impacted me and made me think time really does go by fast,” Murillo said.

Autumn Warmerdam (9)
Autumn Warmerdam (9) was home sick with a fever when her mom got an alert about the Queen’s passing on her Apple Watch. Her mom broke down, and while she recognizes that Elizabeth was “an icon, and a beautiful symbol of a nation,” Autumn couldn’t understand her moms reaction.

“She started crying and then I started laughing because [our family] had never been to [the UK] and she’d been one time, so I thought it was really weird,” Warmerdam said.

Marcus Escalera (Social Sciences teacher)
Teacher Mr. Escalera heard about it on the radio while driving to work. He remembers everyone asking him ‘‘Did you hear? Did you hear?’’ but he didn’t hold much interest. He was curious why so many Americans cared so much about an event that did not directly affect them.

“I did do a little bit of self reflection, like, why don’t I care as much, should I? Everyone else does,” Esculara said “[Are] there going to be any changes like to the US or to my life because the Queen died? Probably not. So then I was like, eh, I don’t have to be as stressed about it as others.”

Alex Gardiner (11)
Alex Gardiner (11), said he doesn’t remember how he found out, and since the UK is eight hours ahead of the US, he “might’ve been sleeping” when the news was first announced. While Gardiner grew up in England, he’s “not super into UK politics,” so he didn’t have a big response to the Queen’s death. He said that Queen Elizabeth’s death hasn’t affected him, or his family in the UK, as far as he knows.

“I didn’t have a super strong reaction, but I was asked many times throughout the day how I felt about the queen’s death,” Gardiner said.