Yahoo Autos 2022 high school graduations: Parents, students relieved at total normalcy for seniors
As the Class of 2022 marks a key milestone this week, they are doing so with high school graduations back to normal after two years of at least some COVID-19 restrictions.
Though COVID-19 is still circulating in the county, restrictions on tickets and social distancing has eased for this spring’s commencement ceremonies at Brevard Public School's 17 high schools. Stadiums are opening at full capacity, and this year’s batch of high school students has been able to experience typical senior year rituals like school dances and being able to invite multiple family members to celebrate graduation with them.
School Board Chair Misty Belford’s own son is graduating from Titusville High School this year.
“I'm happy that we'll be able to shake hands instead of waving at people if they walk past, that would be nice,” Belford said “And it's nice that like he got 10 tickets for graduation.
For parents who’ve guided their children through the challenges of the COIVD-19 pandemic, the experience is triumphant but somewhat strange.
Jennifer Secor, parent of a 2022 Astronaut High School graduate, did not know what to expect from graduation celebrations. Because her daughter is an only child, she had not experienced graduation events before.
“It was nice to kind of see that sense of normalcy and you know, to be able to celebrate with the other parents. We've been through all of this together so to see our kids get through and succeed … was really kind of cool,” Secor said. Astronaut High students graduate Saturday, but smaller celebrations for grads have already been underway.
More: Cocoa Beach High School finds new graduation tradition amid pandemic chaos
The ceremonies will be a far cry from the limited outdoor events that took place to honor seniors who graduated during the start of the pandemic. Ginger Squires, mother of Rockledge High School 2022 class president Meghan Squires, recalled her older daughter's graduation with some sadness.
“They were able to graduate at the end of July, but it was minimal and outside,” Ginger Squires said. “And at that point, I mean, she was already packed and ready to go to college. It was nice that we were able to have a ceremony, but it was just a bummer.”
This year, Ginger Squires wanted to go all out. She helped plan a winter formal for students after homecoming dances were postponed and took a leading role planning Project Graduation, an after-graduation lock in that aims to keep students off the streets as they celebrate to prevent drunk driving.
That celebration took place last year despite the pandemic, but she said she wanted to make sure this year's graduates got a special celebration.
“It is a wonderful thing that these kids can do all of this that they haven't been able to do the past couple of years," Ginger Squires said.
Tickets were limited in 2021 depending on the size of the venue. This year, schools are holding ceremonies at full capacity. That has allowed Secor’s family members and friends from out of town to drive from Wisconsin to attend the ceremony. Meghan Squires' grandparents will get to attend as well.
And Meghan Squires will sit much closer to her fellow classmates than students in past years, she said.
“We're not going to be sitting like right next to each other like how years ago we would have done it,” Meghan Squires said. “But we won't be the six feet apart like the past two years we have been, which I feel like as a class that'll be better for us to graduate and actually be with each other than sitting six feet apart from each other.”
Students also got to celebrate “Grad Bash” at Universal Studios in Orlando for the first time in two years. The park was shut down for a night except for soon-to-be graduates of area high schools.
In 2020 and 2021, Grad Bash was postponed. This year, students returned to the park.
Dalen Belford, son of Misty Belford, said it was a great experience, though kind of strange to be with thousands of students in one place.
“It was great,” Dalen Belford said. “And it was kind of odd and I don't know how to describe it was odd because it's not something that we've been able to do during the pandemic.”
Some high schools this year held homecoming celebrations, and unlike 2020 and 2021, schools were able to host proms. Some parent groups during the pandemic opted to host independent dances with COVID-19 restrictions. But for Astronaut High School seniors, this spring prom was their first big high school dance.
Secor’s daughter attended her first and only high school dance this spring for prom. Her boyfriend, who graduated high school last fall, also got to attend. He had not attended prom because of the pandemic.
“Astronaut opened it up so you can have some guests that they were approved to Prom, so I think he was almost a little more excited than she was that he actually got to because he never got one,” Secor said.
This year's graduates voiced a number of emotions about graduation — anxiety about heading off to college, but also pride for themselves and their peers for being able to close this chapter of their lives.
“We've all had a lot of different struggles and challenges and new stressors,” Dylen Belford said. “And we've had to deal with things that we're not really prepared to deal with … I think maybe just that we're a little more mature now, and we were put through some things that made us mature.”
Bailey Gallion is the education reporter for FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Gallion at 321-242-3786 or bgallion@floridatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: 2022 Brevard high school graduations little COVID-19 restrictions
