Lyon Co. High School to Hold In-Person Graduation

Lyon County High School will honor the class of 2020 next month with an in-person graduation ceremony.

The commencement ceremony for this year's seniors will take place on July 11 at 10 am in the school gymnasium. The graduating class consists of 58 students, including 4 valedictorians (Marley Burchett, Allye Culp, Annie Dong, and Kate Gray) and 2 salutatorians (Jakhia Burks and Ashlyn Doom).

LCHS Principal Tom Radivonyk said that this is something they have been working on for a while, and as far as he knows, Lyon County may be the only public school in the state of Kentucky that has made plans for an in-person ceremony.

"It was just a process to get the proposal crafted and then get it approved by local health authorities and the governor's office," said Radivonyk.

The agreement allows the school to have only 15 percent of their normal capacity of people in the gymnasium. Each member of the graduating class of 58 students will be allowed to have two guests in attendance. All chairs will be placed at least six feet apart in all directions. Radivonyk said the chairs for the faculty and students will take up the entire gymnasium floor. Each upper section of the gymnasium can hold up to 44 people, where guests will be seated. 

He said a lot of thought has gone into all of the details, and there will be numerous safeguards in place. Each person in attendance will go through a health screening and be asked to wear a mask. Students will be given a mask with a logo for the event, as well as a second cap to wear.

"They leave their own personal cap at home," Radivonyk said. "They're going to take this cap and they're going to throw it in the air and leave it in the gym. We were afraid that someone would wind up with an exchange of cap, so they're going to just stay on the floor and walk out." 

Radivonyk said he gives a lot of credit to Superintendent Russ Tilford for making this happen.

"He was just the steadying force with it and had a lot of resolve to make this happen and just to be different and stand apart, not do what everyone else is doing," said Radivonyk.