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FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Broward County Public Schools have revealed their virtual graduation plans for high school seniors whose ceremonies have been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Many high school seniors across the country have had no prom, but it looks like those in South Florida will have a graduation, but it’s not going to be what they would have normally expected.
“A lot of traditions we have been looking forward to since freshman year have been cancelled,” Broward Schools Student Advisor Beau Alexander Simon said.
Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie announced the changed plans to students in a video released Wednesday.
“Each graduation will be promoted and broadcast live on Beacon TV,” Runcie said. “Ceremonies will be streamed via YouTube with a live chat window. This way, you can invite your family and your friends, whether they live here locally, across the country or live anywhere in the world. Our goal is to use technology to make your graduation personal and memorable.”
The virtual ceremonies will be held on Monday, June 15, to Sunday, June 28. The date for each school will be announced on Friday, May 1, and caps and gowns will be distributed in May.
“The district has worked to create and plan something that brings the characteristics of a traditional graduation into a virtual one,” Simon said. “It will allow us to make memories.”
Although the graduations will go on, the reality is tough to take for seniors like Ethan Silverman, who attends Cooper City High School.
“I would love to still be able to have a normal graduation, whether it’s at Nova Southeastern or just at the football field where we’re all spread out, so either way, it would be awesome,” he said.
“Let’s go to Universal with a group of friends. I can go when I turn 18 in a couple of months,” Eduardo Cueto, a senior at Nova High School, said. “I can just go to a club with a group of friends and say that’s our prom. It’s as simple as that, but graduation is something that’s going to be a one-time experience that I won’t be able to go through again.”
Kenna Reid is counting down the 17 days left of school as a St. Thomas Aquinas senior. She said she does not know if her graduation will be virtual.
“We’re still hoping,” she said. “I mean, we definitely know we’re not going back to school, and we know that all of our events are online and everything, but I’m really hoping for a graduation, like a real one.”
Jordan Scandizzo, a senior at West Broward High School, and her friends have created a version of a graduation picture. They could be seen wearing their caps and gowns while adhering to social distancing guidelines.
“While it’s online, we don’t get the same experience that we have been waiting for all of high school,” she said.
https://twitter.com/RobertwRuncie/status/1253076593095905281?s=20
In a Wednesday tweet, Runcie said the district would be open to allowing students to experience traditional commencement ceremonies, should it become safe to do so.
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