Seniors have spent the past 12 years of their lives for the moment to experience graduation as the send off to adulthood. While it is understandable for Brunswick County Schools to take precautions to ensure everyone’s safety, what is the need to rush graduation? There is still a chance to be able to hold graduation at a later date, with the opportunity for everyone to at least celebrate together.

It has been evident over the past few months that COVID-19 has made life harder for everyone. No one knows where this pandemic will take us in the next few months, but I know as a West Brunswick senior and American citizen, it is my duty to speak for my peers and let Brunswick County Schools know how we as students feel about the current graduation plan. Even if a normal graduation ceremony is not feasible at a later date, there is still time to come up with a ceremony plan that allows everyone to be together while maintaining social distance. It doesn’t seem like watching a video stream of our graduation 1-2 weeks after receiving our diplomas is the send off that the class of 2020 deserves. How can the graduating class feel like we have received a true send off?

We are asking Brunswick County Schools to reconsider TWO things: to move graduation to a later date and for the graduation ceremony to include ideas offered by Brunswick County’s graduating seniors. We understand that time is short, but there are several ways that the families and students of the class of 2020 can submit their ideas: 

- Send a survey to teacher and student email accounts.

- Post a link on the district website for interested parties to submit their ideas. 

- Utilize district’s social media to conduct a poll. 

Please include your graduation ideas in the comments! Lets be heard.