The COVID-19 (also known as the Coronavirus) is causing the cancellation of many events, including graduation ceremonies across the world. It is very likely that we will not return to school this academic year, and also have our graduation ceremonies canceled. As high school students, we want to be able to celebrate our commencement with our peers and families. This is a lifetime event that we do not want to miss out on and not make any memories in. I understand that this may cause a lot of rework by the district administration, but we as students and families are ready to help. Please join me and other OLSD high school students across the district in an effort to postpone our graduation to a later date in either July or August. 

UPDATE 5/22/2020:

On April 20th, Governor Mike DeWine announced that schools will remain closed for the rest of the school year. On May 6th, OLSD sent an email to the community regarding a change in graduation plans. Instead of moving forward with the rescheduled event that was supposed to be in July, the administration developed an alternative plan of hosting graduation in two phases. Phase 1 consists of the Commencement Walk held at their respective high schools, and Phase 2 would be the Virtual Graduation Ceremony. Though this is still a safe way to honor OLSD graduates, other high schools across the country have been able to move forward with traditional ceremonies but still maintain social distancing guidelines.

Recently, a Tik Tok was posted where a high school hosted graduation as normal, but with a few restrictions. For example, graduates were to be seated minimum 6 feet apart in the stadium. 

A senior at Olentangy Liberty contacted Superintendent Mark Raiff to propose that OLSD host its graduations in a similar way. They had a phone conversation regarding researching and planning this event that meets the safety guidelines. Here is the link to the tweet: https://twitter.com/michaelbooth22/status/1263547192775782400?s=12

In a difficult time like this, we are faced with challenges, but Olentangy is a strong community. If we follow the guidelines, we can still have the moments that the class of 2020 has worked hard for.