Paso Robles seniors will get drive-in graduations after coronavirus cancels ceremonies
Paso Robles High School will hold drive-in graduation ceremonies after planned traditional celebrations were canceled due to a recent uptick in local coronavirus cases.
The Paso Robles Joint Unified School District board of trustees on Tuesday voted 4-2 to cancel the 17 mini ceremonies set to begin on Wednesday at War Memorial Stadium.
Trustees Chris Arend and Lance Gannon voted against canceling the ceremonies. Trustee Chris Bausch was absent.
Seniors will now receive their diplomas during drive-in graduation ceremonies, which will be held at the Paso Robles Event Center starting on Wednesday and continuing through the weekend.
The district long resisted holding a drive-through or drive-in ceremony — which nearly all of the other San Luis Obispo County districts put on at the end of the 2019-2020 school year — in favor of a series of small, in-person ceremonies featuring 25 seniors at a time.
However, San Luis Obispo County is currently experiencing a rise in COVID-19 cases, and the county Public Health Department can no longer support in-person graduation gatherings, Paso Robles Joint Unified Superintendent Curt Dubost said at Tuesday’s emotional board meeting.
“The unfortunate fact is that the state is approving gatherings only for cultural, religious or protest march purposes, not for something like this,” Dubost said. “And the ed code references to something like this does not apply to graduations. So there was no way for us to continue to move forward with this legally.”
Paso Robles trustees vote to cancel school ceremonies
School board trustees were frustrated about being forced to make a last-minute decision that would inevitably anger graduates and parents who have already had to deal with a shortened school year and miss out on important senior moments.
“This is not about safety. This is not about what’s right for students. This is a wording,” trustee Joel Peterson said. “This is semantics of a wording of a gathering. It’s really a difficult situation to put this administration in and the people who’ve planned this for the last six weeks, to put our students in.
“It’s actually, like, almost unconscionable to put us in a situation the night before a situation where we have 17 small group gatherings.”
Arend, another trustee, pushed for the district to defy the county Public Health Department’s guidance and hold the planned graduations anyway.
“We have no indication from the health department that anything we have done poses any additional risk to health,” Arend said at Tuesday’s meeting. “Matter of fact, when you consider what will happen if the kids instead go out and do their sort of own celebrations, or we have a drive-through where they then all drive off and congregate someplace else, we’re probably going to be avoiding and mitigating risks that would otherwise arise if we were not controlling this.”
On Tuesday, tearful students and parents expressed concerns about what would happen if some of the ceremonies were able to go forward, but some were shut down by authorities.
And trustees worried about dealing with the consequences of defying local and state authorities, including potential litigation.
“One of the reasons we’re doing this is people aren’t wearing masks, they haven’t followed the proper procedures, and now we have to pay the consequences,” trustee Tim Gearhart said. “And I think it’s really rotten that our seniors have to deal with this situation, especially at the last minute. But I am not willing to have this district go against the government that just happens to help pay for the schooling in this district.”
Ultimately, the board voted unanimously in favor of holding a series of drive-in graduations.
“Despite today’s disappointing news, we could not be more proud of our Class of 2020,” Paso Robles Unified deputy superintendent Jennifer Gaviola wrote in an email after the meeting. “The resiliency you have shown in adapting to and overcoming the challenges of 2020 has been truly inspirational. We wish you every future success, and we are confident you will change the world for the better!”
