Proms, graduations put on hold
Summer ceremonies ruled out after school year disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic
Peterborough’s school boards in Peterborough county are looking to the fall for rescheduling of proms and graduations postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board and the Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board are putting off ceremonies until October
“We have postponed those ceremonies until Oct. 8, the Thursday before
Thanksgiving,” said Galen Eagle, communications manager for the Catholic board.
“It is a typical homecoming period for our school communities. In the past, the recent past, many of our secondary schools have had, in fact, held their graduation ceremonies in the fall.”
Students who have gone without inclass teaching since mid-March will now have to wait longer for the rite of passage of walking across the stage and having their accomplishments acknowledged by friends, family and peers alike.
“I kind of feel a little bit ripped off with the whole thing since I will not have the same kind of memories that everyone else before me would have had,” said Bree Rowan, a student at Kenner Collegiate.
“I don’t really get the pictures; the ceremony and I have already ordered my prom dress.”
For graduating students, returning in the fall to take part in the ceremonies,
especially prom, will have a different feeling then they would have had in June.
“We haven’t really been able to see each other, sort of live our senior year like we were supposed to,” Rowan said.
“We are not getting the best three months of it because of all of this.”
Education providers understand how this will impact students the most, especially those who were looking forward to these ceremonies during their educational journeys.
The journey is a momentous one and it is important to students that they can take part in these celebrations, said Diane Lloyd, the public board’s chair.
“We are hopefully optimistic October will be an OK time to hold these ceremonies,” Eagle said.
“Of course, we will be monitoring the situation closely.”
For students like Rowan, she feels like the interruption has significantly impacted the memories she and her friends would have made during the time leading up to their graduation and prom.
“I think me, and my friends won’t be as close as we would have been, if we had’ve done this in June,” she said.
If universities continue as planned in September, Rowan feels like the connections she made throughout her high school career will not be the same, especially in the fall.
“We are all going to be making our own connections with new friends,” she said.
“By the time we get back in October to do commencement, I feel like we are not going to have the same kind of bond that we would have had in June.”
The school boards considered alternative plans for ceremonies in the summer but ruled that out.
“We talked a little bit about summer,” said Lloyd. “I don’t know how doable that is because a lot of people are away in the summer.”
The school boards continue to receive guidance from public health officials as they reschedule ceremonies.
“That is the plan at this point,” Eagle said.
“Not a cancellation of graduation this year, but a postponement to the fall.”