BY CHUCK VANDENBERG
PCC EDITOR
FORT MADISON - It's going to take three full days, but Fort Madison High School is actually holding 136 individual graduation ceremonies over the next three days.
With plans still up in the air regarding a regular graduation ceremony, school officials went with a video graduation where each senior crosses the stage with family in attendance, as photos are taken and school staff made a video segment of each student crossing the stage.
Seniors are scheduled in 10 minutes increments all day Monday through Wednesday. Senior speakers and administration presentations are also being recorded and will be included in the video presentation.
Senior Kenya Davis-Robinson brought five family and friends with her and said she was happy the school made the effort to create some kind of ceremony in the uncertainty of future plans.
"I feel like it's better than no ceremony at all," she said. "This is pretty great considering everything that's going on in the world."
Davis-Robinson is planning on attending Southeastern Community College in a computer science program.
Her father Terry Robinson said despite the pandemic causing closures and cancellation's, the video will be something his daughter will have to remember her senior year.
"I kinda think this is wonderful. They're going to remember this for the rest of their lives and they'll have something else positive to remember it by," he said.
"Here we can take pictures up close and everyone that needs to be here is here as far as her family."
High School Principal Greg Smith said the school is trying to hang on to everything it can for the seniors, but social distancing just isn't something educators are prepared for.
"Everything is just so upside down right now. "This is not what educators want to do, we're people people and social distancing is foreign to us," he said.
"But it's the best we can do right now. From what we've seen this morning families are showing up dressed up, and they're cheering. So that's something."
Smith said he doesn't believe anyone thinks it's the best way to do things and school officials are still hoping a regular graduation ceremony can happen at the end of the month.
"We'd love to have that ceremony and we're hoping at the end of June we can do that. But there are quite a few schools around us that are starting to cancel everything," Smith said. "But we're gonna hang on as long as we can."
The graduation parade that took place Friday was a big success, Smith said, and he hopes to make that an annual event.
Shea Dinwiddie, a senior who was filmed Monday afternoon, said the parade was fun, but a bit chilly.
"It was cold sitting up in the back of that Mustang, but it was fun,"
Dinwiddie said he would have preferred the traditional graduation ceremony so he could celebrate with all his classmates and friends.
"I guess we all would wish that everyone could be here including our friends, but at least we were able to bring our family, and the people that are most important could watch us," he said.
"I don't think if everything is normal that we need all this other stuff, but it's nice recognition."
Dinwiddie, is planning on attending Iowa State University in the fall and majoring in aerospace engineering.
The video is scheduled to be released on June 27, which is still the date planned for the regular graduation ceremony pending approval of Centers for Disease Control and Iowa Department of Public Health guidance.
Prom is still planned for the seniors on June 13, but Smith said a decision won't be made on confirming that date until June 8.
A full graduation ceremony is still being planned for June 27,
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