Ever since news first broke that all schools in Illinois would remain closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic sweeping across the nation, many questions had been left unanswered regarding a number of end of the school year traditions, such as Graduation, Senior awards and yearbook signings.

Last week RBHS students got some much needed answers to all of their questions. While the RB administration sought to give the schools graduating seniors the ceremony that they deserved in regards to graduation, they understood that it would be impossible to have a typical high school graduation in light of the circumstances. The schools administration has come up with an interesting solution to this problem, a virtual graduation will be held over zoom on Friday, May 29th, this will be followed by a condensed, in person graduation to be held on Monday, June 29th only if some major social distancing restrictions have been lifted.  

“This has been an ongoing situation since we left in mid march, we thought that the best for this moment, according to our limitations would be a virtual graduation, and try to at the end of June push out something in person,” RBHS principal Dr.Hectór Freyas said.

Throughout the process of deciding what to do about graduation, Dr.Freytas, and other members of the administration have tried to put an emphasis on transparency, and communication.

“We’ve never wanted to give out bad information or switch dates. We need to be straight with our parents, straight with our students,” Freytas said, “I wanted to commit.”

While most RB’s seniors wish that they could have a normal ending to their last year in high school, they also understand that in light of the circumstances this plan is the best one possible.

“I feel like it’s the best [the administration] could do with the limited options they had. It’s unfortunate that our graduation has to be online,” Senior Mary Brosnan said, “But hopefully if everything calms down during the summer we could have a more traditional graduation ceremony. That way we could still cherish our last moments together as the class of 2020.

As of now, the administration plans to continue with it’s plan for an in person graduation, it may face some major challenges. The ceremony is planned to be held at the Kennelly Athletic Complex, the administration decided to use the Football field in order to adhere to social distancing guidelines. However, the graduation  will only take place if Illinois’ stay at home order has been lifted by June 26th.

Freytas has urged members of the RB community to persevere through these times, and while he expressed optimism that an in person graduation could be held, he acknowledged the fact that nobody could be certain of what the situation may be come June 29th.

“Eventually June’s gonna come, we’re gonna get closer, and i’m just always hopeful that it’s safe for us to come together. Things could change for the better, but until then we’ve got to stick to the original plan that we put out,” Freytas said.