St. Mary High School Principal Doug Shelton has announced that the schools graduation ceremony will take place on July 11 at 7 pm. The event will be combined with their Baccalaureate Mass and will take place in the school gymnasium.
Shelton says they will be following the state's COVID-19 guidelines at the event. It will be closed to the general public, however each student was allowed to invite up to 12 guests to attend. The gym's capacity is 1,200, which left Shelton with a target goal of 300 attendees.
According to Shelton, the students will be spaced at least 6 feet apart, and might have the freedom of choice when it comes to wearing a mask.
"We have them spaced where we believe they'll have the choice whether they want to wear it or not." Shelton continued, "We do know that we're going to slow down the conferment of diplomas so that each student will have the option of unmasking when they get their diploma."
Shelton says the Bishops will be wearing masks, but they want to give the students the option of getting their picture taken without a mask if they wanted.
He said, "Our goal on this is to provide the structures that the state says need to be there and then where things are optional, let our students and families do as they wish."
The ceremony will also be live-streamed on the schools Facebook page as well, for those that don't feel comfortable attending the event in-person.
