Summer graduations, events are ‘extremely unlikely to be safe,’ MS health officer says
Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs appeared to throw cold water Thursday on hopes for some South Mississippi high schools to hold large, traditional graduation ceremonies in June.
When asked whether weddings and other big gatherings scheduled for late this spring or summer should be postponed, Dobbs left little gray area on the subject.
“It really is impossible to say (how COVID-19 will spread in the summer), but I think what is pretty comfortable to say is that normal gatherings throughout the summer are extremely unlikely to be safe,” Dobbs said.
Dobbs’ comments followed Gov. Tate Reeves’ response to questions about whether Mississippians should consider postponing planned large gatherings in the coming weeks and months.
“I can’t speak to June and July personally. I can’t tell you with certainty what June and July are going to look like,” Reeves said. “There is a lot of data out there that suggests the summer months tend to slow viruses in general, coronaviruses in particular. But none of those studies have anything to do with COVID-19. The one thing we have learned with COVID-19 is you should probably expect the unexpected. While I hold out hope and pray the summer months are going to bring a reprieve with the spread of the virus, I don’t think we can definitively say that at all.”
Reeves plans to to loosen more guidelines of Mississippi’s shelter-in-place order on Friday, but he is unwilling to give ground on some parts of the order that will hinder large gatherings.
“We are very justified in being cautious about reopening our economy,” he said. “You’re going to see us loosen some restrictions, but we’re not going to loosen all restrictions. In fact, quite the contrary.
“We’re going to continue to see social distancing. We’re going to continue to regulate some areas of the economy, but we’ve got to start moving in the right direction to open more businesses.”
Mississippi Coast graduation plans
Jackson County School District was the latest to announce Thursday it will attempt to hold traditional graduation ceremonies for its three high schools — St. Martin, Vancleave and East Central — on June 5-6 at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi.
“Each of the three JCSD high schools will hold a traditional graduation ceremony to the extent possible while maintaining compliance with state and local social distancing directives,” the school district said in a statement.
JCSD also has a “Plan B” that will move graduation ceremonies to each high school’s football stadiums on June 4-6.
District officials will announce which graduation plan they have selected on or before May 27.
St. Patrick ceremonies
St. Patrick announced Thursday that it plans to move forward with Graduation Mass at 5 p.m. May 15 at the Nativity Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Biloxi.
A release from the school said that guests will be limited bases on guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and state authorities.
“We will make the determination of the number of guests allowed for each graduate closer to our graduation date,” St. Patrick principal Matt Buckley said in the release.
St. Patrick plans to live stream the mass and each graduate will receive a copy of the video.
Long Beach and Pass Christian, which both took input from their seniors, decided to hold their graduation ceremonies on June 15 and June 19 at their football stadiums.
Harrison County School District, which includes Harrison Central, West Harrison and D’Iberville, has yet to make an announcement on what they plan to do for graduation.
Gulfport, Ocean Springs students create petitions
Gulfport and Ocean Springs both planned virtual graduation ceremonies where seniors and a small group of family members would be on hand as they were videotaped while walking across the stage. The districts plan to have the videos edited together to create professionally-produced video that would include all graduates.
Students and parents in both Gulfport and Ocean Springs have created petitions asking school district officials to postpone their graduation ceremonies until later in the summer so they can have more traditional events.
Biloxi School District announced Thursday that graduation will be divided into nine sessions, with 40 students graduating in each session on May 18-20 in the school’s basketball arena.
The district says that 40 families can be spaced out sufficiently in the bleachers to follow social-distancing guidelines. Graduates will be spaced out in seating on the arena floor.
Each graduate can bring no more than 6 immediate family members. Students will be filmed as they walk across the stage to get their diplomas.
