Your Voice: A grade 12 RSS student's letter to officials regarding grad ceremonies and proms in 2020

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A grade 12 RSS student's letter to officials regarding grad ceremonies and proms in 2020

My name is Ally Wyllie and I am a Grade 12 student attending Rutland Senior Secondary in Kelowna. I understand that as of now graduation and proms are cancelled but i do not think this is fair and let me explain why.

I have stood outside in lines at Walmart, Superstore, Save On, banks and other stores from a safe six feet apart distance. I watch security at these stores check everyone and let them in after doing head counts to know how many people are in the store at the same time. I walk around passing strangers and people I don’t know sometimes I walk past people where we are not 6 feet apart. I am always keep social distancing in mind for the safety of me and other peers. Eventually I reach the counter after a long time of waiting and pass the cashier and have a small chit chat wishing each other well until I am handed my receipt and I go on my way.

This is allowed because it is essential. These practices are in place to keep people safe and safe guard everyone. Which I appreciate I truly do.

My question is what is the difference between the grocery store line ups and graduates being able to have our prom walk at the same safe distancing as we do outside of these supermarkets? What’s the difference between walking up and down these aisles beside strangers and having our grads walk across a football field? What is the difference of being around all these strangers then being around you’re classmates in an open setting following all social distancing measures? What is the difference between being handed a receipt and a diploma?

Looking at these examples, there isn’t. Costco has had lines so long that seemed like at least 300 people. These parking lots are filled with cars every single day. The grocery stores are jam packed every single day and we follow these social distancing measures there, but what is the difference between our grad events if we follow the exact same measures.

Going to a supermarket is a personal decision; graduation events and ceremonies are a controlled school-ran event students have been looking forward to and working so hard for 13 years. Yet there’s no difference between going to a grocery store and having our prom and grad ceremony.

Not letting graduates have their walk for prom and walk across that stage and throw our caps in the air and receive our diploma is not only hypocritical, but it’s causing irreplaceable harm that will follow for the next couple years. Graduating class of 2020 feels like we are being given up on and that people are just forgetting that this is one of the most important things to us that we’ve been waiting for. We no longer feel special. We just feel like the black sheep of all of the graduating classes from previous and future years.

A virtual graduation is not special for us. Every single grad I have talked to does not care when these events happen we just want them to happen. This is important to us and they should not be cancelled completely they should be postponed. There is so many ways we could have this happen and so many solutions when the restrictions are not so strict anymore. These last few months have already been taken away where it was our last couple months making memories with our friends, seeing our favourite teachers and just remembering what it’s like to be a kid before we move into the next chapter of our life. We are going to be adults and the last memories we have as kids is our senior year being ruined and then taking important dates away from us.

I have started a petition to postpone and not cancel grad events and I have over 1,800 signatures. We deserve a prom and a graduation ceremony the proper way, even if it means in a big field or six feet apart from each other. A virtual ceremony is not acceptable and no grad thinks this is a special way to celebrate us leaving high school. We don’t want to throw our caps by ourselves or waste the money we spent on pretty dresses and never be able to wear them. We want this and we deserve this.

So if graduates were all lined up outside of a supermarket and walked up as if we were going into the store and the store manager handed us our diploma instead of a receipt, would that be acceptable?

Let us graduate, let us walk. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Sincerely,
Ally Wyllie