THUNDER BAY – Shae Coffey had her prom dress purchased and was looking forward to leaving high school in style.
Then the pandemic struck.
The 17-year-old instead will have to settle for a virtual graduation ceremony. On Monday she joined about 210 other graduating students in a drive-through cap-and-gown pick-up session outside the Selkirk Street high school.
It wasn’t the way she wanted to go out, but it’s certainly better than nothing, the Grade 12 student said.
“There have been ups and downs,” she said. “Obviously I’ve been very sad that we don’t get the typical last day of school or graduation or prom or any of that stuff. But this is something we’re going to remember. No other year is going to have an experience like this.
“And our staff is doing a really good job making sure we’re enjoying ourselves and we have a drive-through celebration or a virtual celebration.”
Coffey said she and her friends plan to make the most of an unfortunate situation.
“We’re going to go out and take some socially distanced prom pictures sometime, when the weather gets nice. It’s really disappointing, but I’m just trying to look on the bright side.”
St. Patrick High School vice-principal, Frank Ruberto, said it was important to staff to ensure students had as close to a normal finish to their high school career as possible, given the restrictions put in place by COVID-19.
Schools have been closed since March and won’t open until the fall, at the earliest.
High school plays an important part in the lives of students, something they look back on well into adulthood.
While there was talk of delaying ceremonies until later in the year to see if restrictions might be lifted, because many might be away at school, it was best to do something at the more traditional graduation time.
“We hear people say it all the time, high school is the best four years of their life. We wanted to recognize that and give them an opportunity,” Ruberto said. “Graduation has a huge meaning for a lot of students and they deserve an opportunity to celebrate that.”
Students picked up their caps and gowns on Monday and have 10 days to take photos and submit them to the school to be included in the virtual ceremony, scheduled for June 25.
“A lot of the kids in the past have gone to their elementary school and taken pictures on the steps, down to the marina, at home with their parents,” Ruberto said. “They’re going to submit the photos to us with their write-up and we’ll pass that on and Westfort Productions is going to be able to do a virtual graduation for us on the 25th.”
St. Ignatius will host its virtual graduation on June 24.
Lakehead Public Schools three high schools are currently working out the final details of how they’ll handle the 2020 graduation.
