With remote learning continuing until the end of June, grads at most schools in the province will not be able to enjoy regular festivities for the second year in a row.
“We were quite upset about it,” said Tyler Davidson, a Grade 12 student at Fort Richmond Collegiate in south Winnipeg.
“We were hoping to have a last hurrah, a final goodbye at grad and without that it’s going to be a rough ending to a rough year,” he continued via Zoom call.
Instead of ‘living up’ graduation month with his classmates at Fort Richmond like he imagined, Davidson will be ending the school year in his bedroom office for the second year in a row.
“I had big high expectations starting off the year, hopefully just having a normal year doing sports, school, events and going on school trips,”
“It’s definitely been way different than what I had imagined.”
Fort Richmond plans on hosting a drive-thru convocation ceremony with a graduation dinner via zoom call.
It’s an experience similar to what students in the Seven Oaks school division will be taking in at the end of the month.
“We will certainly be streaming a ceremony that grads can watch with their families, we want to get grads in that but we’re still working out the details of how we do that,” explained Seven Oaks’ superintendent Brian O’Leary.
For some other school divisions in Winnipeg, plans for grad are still in the works.
“We feel even more constrained then we did in June 2020,” says Christian Michalik, superintendent of the Louis Riel school division.
“We’re going to work really hard to make the best of it, so we’ve committed to parents, families and kids to bring clarity and comprehensive communication about our plans by the 11th,” he concluded.
Regardless of how students at schools across the province graduate this year, Davidson thinks it’ll be a June to remember nonetheless.
“I think this experience is going to close us together for a really long time.”