BROOKSVILLE, Fla. — After having to finish the school year at home due to the coronavirus, Cassie Stump had held out hope her two graduating seniors would, at least, still have a traditional ceremony.
But then the email from the Hernando County School District arrived in her inbox Wednesday.
“My stomach just dropped,” Stump said, whose son and daughter both attend Weeki Wachee High School.
“My daughter actually put off joining the Navy for her graduation ceremony,” Stump said, while her son, who has battled learning disabilities through his entire schooling, was excited to finally celebrate the end of his senior year.
“It’s heartbreaking,” she said. “The kids went through hell this year.”
The school district announced Wednesday graduates will be provided a virtual commencement ceremony instead. Superintendent John Stratton said the cancellations come because of an increase in newly-confirmed COVID-19 cases.
"I share your disappointment, but we have to do what we feel is in the best interest of all of our students, staff and community," Stratton said in a letter to graduates.
Stump says she understands the need to keep people safe but she questions canceling in-person ceremonies when students are expected to be in the classroom just two weeks later.
"It's picking and choosing,” she said. “I know that everybody is struggling right now to try to make sense of everything but I think there could've been a lot of other options they could've done for graduation."
Options like holding ceremonies outside in the high school stadiums, which is now the plan for graduating seniors in the Pasco County School District.
Leaders with Hillsborough County Public Schools, who announced Tuesday their ceremonies would also be virtual, said they explored using high school stadiums but ultimately determined the seating arrangements, “would prove even more difficult for social distancing.”
The cost to rent and sanitize a different, larger outdoor venue “was not fiscally possible” either.
In early June, Polk County Public Schools held graduation ceremonies at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium. Pinellas County Schools will hold abbreviated in-person graduations at Spectrum Field in Clearwater next week.
An update on ceremonies for graduating seniors in the Manatee County School District is expected to be announced Thursday.
In-person graduation ceremonies have been canceled for Sarasota County Schools students. Principals at each high school issued the letter above to parents and students last week.
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