Local students react to upcoming graduation without COVID guidelines
EVANS, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - After lifting mask requirements in Columbia County schools, students are looking forward to graduation with no COVID protocols.
The last two years have been anything but normal for students.
“When everything shut down, it was a strange and a drastic change, but something you had to adjust to. At times it was difficult,” said Taijahn Towns, senior at Grovetown High School.
Layla Bland, senior at Greenbrier High School said: “As a student, it’s been a little different. We’ve had online classes and different bell schedules at the school. It’s all been a little hard on everybody.”
Not only have classes changed but so have sports and other events.
“Last year, we weren’t allowed to have a regular homecoming, so people still found their way to do things. But it wasn’t the same as having a big ordeal like it usually was for students before the pandemic started,” she said.
Towns said: “Different things we had to adjust. Academics and sports, stuff like that.”
After almost two years of masking up at school, and social distancing, it’s all in the past.
Next month, seniors and their families will fill Evans Towne Center Park for the first graduation since 2019 with no COVID guidelines.
“Kind of takes that sense of security and going back to being able to do what other seniors before me did, and I looked forward to doing stuff like that,” he said.
It’s a sense of normalcy students have been craving.
Bland said: “It’s really important for all of us to have that, especially after having two years of uncertainty. I’m really looking forward to that, and it does mean a lot to me.”
Graduation in Columbia County is set for May 26-28 and the times vary based on the school.
- May 26- Harlem High, 7:30 p.m.
- May 27- Lakeside High, 8:30 a.m., Evans High, 7:30 p.m.
- May 28- Greenbrier High, 8:30 a.m., Grovetown High, 7:30 p.m.
- Copyright 2022 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.
Copyright 2022 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.
