The Rainbow District School Board has confirmed that its schools will not be holding in-person graduation ceremonies this month to protect the health and safety of would-be participants amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a media release last week, the province said the government would allow school boards to invite graduating elementary and secondary students to return to school in June for a short, outdoor celebration, where physical distancing is possible.
And yesterday, Sudbury.com brought you the story of a group of graduating high school students who are pushing for an in-person ceremony.
Further complicating matters were comments made by Premier Doug Ford on June 2, who said the government would like to see schools host outdoor graduation ceremonies “for students in all grades.”
But at the June 8 Rainbow board meeting, director of education Norm Blaseg announced the board would be going forward with its current plans for virtual graduations. The board had instructed schools to start planning virtual graduations back in February.
“I just wanted to remind folks that again, as much as possible, we’re trying to adhere to health and safety protocols,” he said.
“COVID is not over, the pandemic is not over. To suggest that we would be able to manage large groups of students and parents in a field is an impossible task, and I would not put anybody at risk in doing that going forward.”
Blaseg said boards did receive more guidance from the Ministry of Education on the matter on Monday.
“It’s not the same as what the premier had indicated earlier last week,” he said.
“The guidance outlines health and safety requirements as well as possible approaches boards could consider. School boards may have planned virtual graduation ceremonies, which should proceed augmented by outdoor end-of-school year celebrations where possible.
“To that end, the ministry and the minister has acknowledged that virtual grads have been planned and have been set in order to occur for the end of this current school year. Typically that’s only for Grade 8 and for Grade 12 — at least that’s been our practice.”
He also said when Ontario enters Stage 1 reopening on Friday, there will be a 10-person limit for outdoor gatherings. That would only increase to a 25-person limit when the province enters Stage 2, which would at the earliest be July 2.
Blaseg said the Ministry of Education has indicated that if a two-metre distance can be kept between participants, “you could have far more in attendance.” But he added “that would be near impossible for our schools to establish, and our schools have not planned for that.”
He said Rainbow board schools have planned for some “augmentations” to their virtual graduation ceremonies.
Those include student-designed grad hoodies, grad caps being distributed to graduates, receiving diplomas by drive-up or drop-off, a “celebration-in-a-box” for graduating students and more.
“I tell you, I have a list of probably about 30 schools here that have identified what they’re going to do in order to make their grad night a significant and memorable one,” Blaseg said.
