The students who graduated in 2020 were born a year after 9-11. It’s safe to say that their senior year in high school was the most fraught since 2001. The new documentary “Homeroom” follows their year from opening day to graduation day. Those who think that Millennial/Generation Z kids are empty vessels more interested in TikTok than social issues will be surprised.

Director Peter Nicks is in his element at Oakland High school, having previously examined the Oakland Police and an Oakland Hospital in the same observational style. That is to say, the camera patiently sits and watches, a fly-on-the-wall, apparently ignored by the students.

And who are the students? Well, to be sure, many are on their phones or staring at the ceiling or sleeping – same as it ever was (minus the phones), but Nicks locks on to students who are concerned about things like the presence of armed police on campus, for example.

What we know going in, but they don’t know yet, is that Covid-19 will turn their last year of high school upside down, which adds another element.

The most dramatic scenes are those of school board public hearings where the kids make their case against police presence and are met with vociferous opposition.

The film is certainly not groundbreaking, but it works as a time capsule, letting us eaves drop on students that have a lot to say, and are learning, slowly but surely, how to say it.

Homeroom is streaming on Hulu