Graduation Day At Last!
On Thursday, March 12, school was cancelled in Union County due to an Ecoli Bacteria scare in the water supply. Because there was no school, there could be no extra curricular activities which meant that our son’s golf match was cancelled.
We told him, “No big deal, they’ll make it up.”
The water works didn’t get things worked out by Friday, so no school that day either.
We told him, “No big deal, they’ve got snow days to spare. No need to make it up.”
We decided to head to the beach for a weekend with friends. On Saturday the 14th, we got the news that school was being closed for 2 weeks in an exercise of judicious caution against something called Covid-19.
We told him, “No big deal, look at it as an extended Spring Break. School, golf, prom, graduation…dude, it’s all good and gonna happen.”
We were wrong about the whole “No big deal” thing.
One by one, every thing our son had to look forward to in the spring of his Senior Year at Parkwood High School, began to disappear.
His golf season…his last shot at a state championship-GONE
His Senior Prom-GONE
Just being with his friends, enjoying their last months together, “ruling the school”-GONE
There was only one thing left, one thing that he told us he really wanted, a graduation-a REAL graduation. As the Coronavirus panic spread, more and more school districts (like Meck. County) chose to take the easy way out: virtual graduation. This is where no child actually gets to walk across a stage and be acknowledge for their accomplishment. No, it’s just a glorified video message.
And it sucks. Every one of them sucks.
The Governor of North Carolina then deemed, as we went into “Phase Two” of his Covid-19 health plan, that it was safe for people to cram into Wal Mart, Target, Lowes, grocery stores, etc., BUT outdoors…in the open? Well, then there was no way more than 25 people could be gathered together safely. In other words, a proper graduation was never gonna happen.
Our hearts sank. As a parent, all you want is to make your child’s hurt go away, and we were doing a lousy job. Worse, we weren’t getting any reasonable help from those in power.
THANK GOD for the sanity of the Union County School Board. In a 5-4 vote, they decided to basically tell the Governor to shove it. These kids deserved just this one thing, and if it cost the county a fine-so be it.
So, yesterday, June 24, 2020, our son, Hogan Charles Nance, got his wish.
He and the rest of the Parkwood High School Class of 2020 FINALLY got one thing good to happen to them this spring: they got their full high school graduation.
It was a glorious day and a huge relief.
And it was a big deal.
