Grad ceremonies must be in person, schools to be told

Ontario schools have been told to hold in-person graduation ceremonies and proms for Grade 12 this year, and that all assemblies should also be in person, the Star has learned.

Students in this year’s graduating class have only had one normal year of high school — Grade 9. They were in Grade 10 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, shutting down schools for more than 27 weeks over the next three years.

A memo will be going out to school boards on Wednesday with the directive, sources familiar with the move told the Star.

“We must restore these experiences,” a source told the Star.

Toronto Catholic student Stephanie De Castro, who sits on the board as a student trustee, said she spoke to a number of student council presidents across the city and “they are so excited, they are already planning proms, finding venues” and confirming plans.

News of the directive for graduations came as the province formally announced the end of mask mandates on March 21 — the Monday after March break — for schools, shops and restaurants.

On Wednesday morning, chief medical officer of health Dr. Kieran Moore also announced that all COVID-19 restrictions will be gone by the end of April.

Last year in early June, Premier Doug Ford and Education Minister Stephen Lecce told schools to hold drive-through or outdoor graduations and celebrations, but many said it was too late to plan them.

At the time, school boards said organizing in-person festivities would be tough to pull off with such a short turnaround. Some schools, however, managed to arrange events last spring, including Toronto’s Malvern Collegiate, where students were given their diplomas during a “walk-through” at the school’s parking lot as friends and family looked on.

One private school even rented a drive-in theatre for its graduation ceremony.

Last month, Grade 12 student Jazzlyn Abbott told the Star that the last four years “have been a difficult situation” for the class of 2022.

“To look back at our high school career and so much of it not being what we were looking at going into high school” has not been easy to deal with, said Abbott, who attends Valour JK-12 School in Petawawa and is on the executive of the Ontario Student Trustees’ Association.

Such festivities are “monumental to end students’ high school careers,” added De Castro, who is the public affairs co-ordinator for the student trustees’ association. “It’s great to have them in person, knowing that for the last two years, graduating classes have not been allowed to have in-person graduations ... (Grade 12 students) are very excited to see grads and proms happening again this year.”

Schools have enough time to plan such in-person festivities, though they may be “toned down a bit to be respectful of the fact that there is still a virus out there,” said Cathy Abraham, president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association.