INNISFAIL – For the second year in a row dozens of local high school students will have a dramatically altered graduation ceremony due to the 15-month long COVID-19 pandemic.
On Friday, June 4, beginning at 9 a.m., 57 graduating Grade 12 students at Innisfail High School will have a virtual ceremony. The graduating students of the 2020/21 school year will all be at school to receive their diplomas and the ceremony will be live-streamed.
The public at large, including family members and friends, are not permitted to physically attend. There will also be no customary appearances by the mayor, the school board trustee or senior Chinook’s Edge School Board officials.
“Unfortunately, we had to skip all our dignitaries in the interest of safety. We are keeping it to the student cohort as laid out by AHS (Alberta Health Services) rules,” said Wayne Pineau, principal of Innisfail High School.
He said the school has scheduled the virtual event, which is being emceed by Brianne Fletcher -- a member of the school’s graduation committee -- to be about two hours long to ensure there is enough time to have all necessary protocols in place to ensure graduating students are safely distanced when each one arrives inside the school gym to accept their diplomas.
“I would guess they have left us ample time,” said Pineau, adding video copies of the ceremony will be provided after to the grads and their families.
Pineau said this year’s virtual graduation ceremony is being held following the school’s grad committee’s tireless efforts in exploring all other avenues to have a safe live in-person event to celebrate this year’s graduation class.
“Yes, we had numerous conversations with AHS and division office to make sure we’re going to follow what we can do. We had plans for much bigger and broader but as things closed down, we had to revise,” said Pineau. “We originally had a plan to do a march down Main Street to celebrate the grads but unfortunately it opened it up to too much possible contact. We are trying to follow the limits that AHS has set out.”
He said he was not aware of any citizen-led plans to honour this year’s graduating class, as was the case last year when local moms Carrie Black and Kerry Towle organizing a big spring ceremony outside the Innisfail Royal Canadian Legion. Last year's official school graduation was not held until Oct. 9, and it too was under strict provincial COVID guidelines.
However, Pineau was quick to praise school officials for their hard work in organizing the virtual event.
“I can’t give enough credit to the ladies on our grad committee. They have done a tremendous job under such difficult circumstances with things changing day by day,” he said of the committee, which included Fletcher, Jen Leinweber and Jeanne Hunter. “It is going to be a good event. Unfortunately, it is the best we are able to do at this time. I think it is a step ahead of possible drive-thru opportunities we were contemplating.
“It is not going to be a regular grad but it will be a good event that we are excited to share with our students,” he said.
The public, including family members and friends of the graduates, are invited to watch this year’s Innisfail High School virtual graduation at the following live stream link: http://bit.ly/InnisfailGrad
