It’s been a roller-coaster of a ride for students, who have seen their graduation gone from happening to canceled three times since COVID-19 began.
Today, 400 or so students will become the BETA test for graduation in the State of Illinois as students will walk across the stage to receive their degree at Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School.
The one day graduation is a condensed version of a previous two day plan laid out by school administrators prior to this weekend. Shortly after that announcement, it was shut down by the State School Board. Days later, allowed moving forward after that very Board and IDPH set guidelines for all schools in the State.
“It is imperative that graduates adhere to the requirements outlined in this letter which are based on the recommendations of the State, CDC, and local health department.” said Principle Dr. Brian Wright in a letter to students on Monday. “Under no circumstance shall any graduate be on campus who has experienced the following symptoms during the past 14 days: fever, cough, shortness of breath, chills, muscle pain, headache, and/or sore throat.”
No mention of temperature checks at the door was made to parents in the letter. Neither a mention why an original two-day split plan was abandoned by the School in favor of a massive one-shot effort. BBCHS officials says they ran the revised plan by County Health before announcing it Monday.
Ceremonies began today at 8:45 am and will conclude around 7 pm tonight. A video of the ceremony is scheduled to release by May 16th.
Yesterday, Kankakee County had a record setting day as 40 new cases of the pandemic were announced in a 24-hour span by County Health officials. There have been 478 cases of COVID-19 in Kankakee County since the pandemic began.
