M’CHIGEENG – Manitoulin Secondary School (MSS) will be pulling out all stops to provide a great graduation ceremony for all its students, even if it has to be virtual, due to the pandemic. The school is combining both a virtual graduation ceremony, and following up on the success of last June, will be holding a graduation bus tour as it did in 2020.
Jamie Mohamed, MSS principal, told The Expositor, “we have been working on our graduation celebrations for about a month. We will be holding a virtual graduation and will be emailing each graduating student a link to connect to on Monday, June 28 to click in around 6 pm where each student can view and share with friends and family.”
Mr. Mohamed noted that, “it is unfortunate that due to COVID-19 we can’t have formal graduation photos done.”
The virtual graduation will have a presentation by the master of ceremonies for the celebration, with additional comments made by Rainbow District School Board (RDSB) trustees and Mr. Mohamed. “Then one by one a picture of each individual graduating student will come up on the screen and their name will be read.” He pointed out MSS will have close to 90 graduating students. “Once this part of the celebration is complete this year’s school valedictorian will be introduced and will be making a speech.”
As well as the virtual graduation ceremony, “the MSS graduation bus tour ’21 will take place,” stated Mr. Mohamed. “We will have four buses travelling in all four directions on the Island, and they will stop at each graduating students home on the Island. And each bus will have teachers and staff who will present a small gift to the student and provide the opportunity for pictures to be taken of them their parents and the teacher.” These ceremonies will also take place on June 28, in the early afternoon, and the school will reaching out to the students to provide an approximate time the school bus will be arriving at their home.
“We are living in extreme times,” said Mr. Mohamed. He noted last year’s virtual graduation was held off until last December, with the graduation bus tour taking place in June 2020.
