Canute High School Says Goodbye To The Trojan Class of 2020
Canute High School’s 2020 commencement ceremony, held Wednesday, April 29, wasn’t a traditional graduation ceremony, but there hasn’t been much this year that one could call traditional.
This year’s seniors, along with all of the other students, spent their last five weeks out of the school buildings, but not out of school’s responsibilities, learning from home. They missed out on the spring sports seasons and all of the usual end-of-year activities like prom and a traditional graduation. But the Canute Public Schools Board of Education and school administration found a way to send the students off in a positive way.
Canute’s commencement ceremony was held in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Oklahoma State Department of Health social distancing guidelines, but each graduate was allowed to walk the graduation path, individually, through the school’s auditorium and onto the stage where they received their diplomas from Superintendent Jill Henderson.
Before the graduates walked, the individual speakers for the event were brought into the auditorium, one at a time, to give their addresses to a near-empty room. The speeches, as well as the individual processionals, were filmed by Paragon TV, who will piece the video together and broadcast this very unique and special graduation ceremony.
Following the processionals and the awarding of diplomas, small groups of graduates were allowed into the school’s playground area where they were filmed moving their tassles from left to right and tossing their caps into the air.
It was a unique commencement, to be sure, but it’s also been a very unique school year.
Photos by Bob Henline The Cordell Beacon