Coronavirus Commencement

Sign this petition to let the BC administration know that we want an in person graduation. Even if graduation is postponed to the distant future, we will not settle for an online graduation ceremony. We have worked too hard for the past 4 years to have commencement taken away from us. Stand strong together as the class of 2020 with other BC students, alumni, and parents!

On April 22, 2020, Horry County Schools Superintendent Dr. Rick Maxey announced that the class of 2020 would have a virtual graduation due to COVID-19. Our graduations are not supposed to held until the first week of June. He announced this on the same day that Governor McMaster announced schools would be closed for the remainder of the year. The Governor allowed the freedom for district superintendents to come up with alternate ways to have a safe graduation. We believe this call to have a virtual graduation was made much too early to judge. Our class has worked extremely hard to reach this milestone and it has been taken away from us much too soon. We ask that you sign this because we believe there are alternate options available to make a graduation work. Whether it is postponed to later in the summer or moved to a new location where precautions are met, we still want to have a chance to achieve what we have always looked forward to. The RIGHT way. 

The Senior High school classes of 2020 in WA state demand an outdoor graduation option. The WA State Health Dept and Governor Inslee said we needed to flatten the curve. We have far less numbers of Coronavirus and the ability to social distance in an outdoor venue has been easily done in many other states.  Numerous large businesses such as Boeing are open as well as Costco, and Amazon with many more people in one space then an outdoor graduation would create! This is unjust and unfair to not allow school districts to make their own decision on this important life event! Many graduating classes are 500 or less and should have the option for outdoor graduation in June or July. 

As of right now Milford High School is cancelling the Graduation Ceremony for this year's graduates due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Right now there are two different plans for the Seniors and parents to choose from. Plan 1 is to have students and their parents gather at the local drive-in and watch a prerecorded ceremony. Plan 2 is to have the music and speeches but have the parents hand the diplomas to their children. These plans are not fair to the seniors graduating this year. Graduations do not belong to the school or the school administration. They belong to the graduates, their families and their friends. While the safety of all the people involved is important, measures cannot be implemented that adversely affect or are unfair to the students. These students have worked 12 years to finish school. This is an important milestone in the lives of all the seniors and is an important milestone in the lives of the parents as well. The students, their families and friends deserve a traditional Graduation Ceremony. Other school districts are delaying their graduations and Milford can and should do the same thing. It is in the best interest of the graduates this year. They have worked so hard for 12 years and it is wrong to rob them of this very important milestone in their lives.