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Ohio Absolutely Failed the Graduates of 2020 by Their Inaction
By Stephen Huffman
State Senator, 5th District
Twice on April 28th, Governor DeWine stated, once on the radio and then
at his afternoon press conference, that he would allow a conventional
graduation if proper social distancing would occur. Shouts
of joy from seniors, parents and school leaders could be heard
throughout the state as school leaders started to plan for graduation
to honor the senior class. A headline on Cleveland.com on April
28th was “Ohio Schools can hold in-person graduation ceremonies if
social-distancing precautions are taken, Gov. Mike DeWine says.”
But the following day, Governor DeWine stated there was some
“confusion” and that he would not allow a conventional high school
graduation of more than ten people. That day, the Ohio Department
of Education came out with guidance to not have more than ten people at
a time at graduation. There was a mass disappointment from the 2020
graduating class and their families around the state.
I have written the governor multiple times asking him to do what he has
done with other aspects of opening up Ohio: form an advisory group of
experts such as superintendents, health commissioners, parents and
others to give him guidance on how a conventional high school
graduation should be done with proper social distancing. Governor
DeWine has formed these advisory groups to open the county fairs,
restaurants, gyms and other large venues, but still nothing concerning
high school graduation. I formed my own advisory group of
superintendents and others and came up with a set of guidelines that I
forwarded to Governor DeWine almost two weeks ago, but there has been
no public or private discussion of these by anyone at the state
level. Governor DeWine and the Ohio Department of Health feel it
is acceptable to allow 300 people at a wedding and 592 people at
Walmart at one time, but will not allow more than ten people at a time
at a high school graduation while observing social distancing.
Fort Jennings High School has 21 graduates and was planning to have a
ceremony at a neighboring school that has a large gym and limited the
number of guests. Licking High School had plans to have a
ceremony at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, which holds almost
19,000, but cannot because of the order of the governor and ODH.
It remains my opinion that a conventional high school graduation could
and still can be done with proper distancing, if allowed by Governor
DeWine and ODH. There are still plenty of high schools that have
plans in June and July to have graduation, so there is hope for
some.
I want to personally congratulate the high school graduating
class of 2020 on all of their hard work and accomplishments. I
also want to apologize for the failure of the State of Ohio for not
allowing you to have a conventional graduation with social distancing,
but more so for not even addressing the issue with an advisory group,
which has been done with so many other aspects of opening up Ohio.
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