We Celebrate You and the Entire UHS Class of 2020!
Maintaining tradition during a pandemic has proven to be a challenge. For a high school, graduation is a rite of passage. For the Ukiah High School Class of 2020, the absence of a traditional graduation ceremony resulted in an alternative event that was well-received. Over two days, we honored graduates in a twelve-hour stage event. The strength of the event was the personal attention we were able to provide each graduate. Beyond introducing them by name and presenting a diploma, we were able to share kind words about each graduate. Immediate family and friends were present to celebrate the moment. Those two days were moving and well-received.
We memorialized the event with a video. That video included a student presentation of the national anthem, speeches, student performances, student speakers, and the awarding of diplomas. It didn’t include the many hours of kind words. As successful as our days on the stage were, the video production was challenging. Editing over 20 hours of audio and video files into a two-hour show is a daunting task. In that process, one hour of data was misplaced. This section of missing data included 28 students that received their diplomas on Thursday morning from 11:14 a.m. to 12:14 a.m. Ukiah High staff decided to air the graduation at its scheduled time, knowing that failure to run it would disappoint the over 300 graduates and their families, but deeply disappoint the 28 students who were unintentionally excluded and their families.
As a result, in the initial airing of the event, those 28 graduates were not included. Fortunately, the data was recovered, and the video was updated and reposted online the following day. This accidental omission was extremely disappointing for graduates and their families. We are glad that the missing footage was able to be recovered but disappointed that the original airing did not include the entire graduating class of 2020. We sincerely apologize to these students and their families. We know this apology cannot make up for the disappointment that you, the graduates, must have felt in being initially excluded from the graduation video, but please know we honor you and thank you for your wonderful contributions to Ukiah High School.
We also want to publicly acknowledge these 28 students and their achievements in a formal manner by sharing some of the stories shared on stage in the live presentation of diplomas. Again, to these graduates and their families, we apologize. We celebrate you and the entire Ukiah High School Class of 2020!