State officials in Minnesota essentially banned large high school and college graduation ceremonies last Friday to limit the spread of COVID-19. The Minnesota Department of Education and Office of Higher Education said indoor graduations and ceremonies held outside in stadiums and on football fields are not permitted, forcing schools to plan virtual ceremonies instead.
On Monday, Minnesota House Republican Ron Kresha wrote a letter to Dept. of Education Commissioner Mary Cathryn Ricker, urging her to rescind the guidance that bans all graduation ceremonies statewide.
District 1B Representative Deb Kiel of Crookston was among the 54 signees of the letter. “The administration and school boards can well adapt what they need to do for their students and make those decisions locally,” Kiel said. “(Governor Tim Walz) has to stop feeling that he has to take care of all of us and make decisions for all of us. We should move on with life and get businesses opened. Graduation is an important step in a senior’s life that they’ve lost, like so many other activities at the end of the year. We’re also talking about a population (youth) that if they do get COVID-19, they seem to be coming out just fine. There are some ways to treat it now, so I think we need to start moving on.”
The FDA has granted an emergency authorization for remdesivir to be used as a treatment for COVID-19 in the U.S., but supply is still quite limited nationwide.
The letter also says the state took a unilateral ‘one-size-hurts-all’ action with little or no warning, and no flexibility for schools capable of holding their ceremonies safely. Some communities in the state are planning on using a drive-in movie theater as a graduation venue. Warren-Alvarado-Oslo is doing just that on May 22 at 9 p.m. in Warren. The letter also states that “smaller schools have plenty of spacing on their football fields,” while other schools have considered ways to hold multiple celebrations to comply with social distancing.
Crookston High School will have a yearbook pick-up, along with a cap-and-gown photo session, on May 22 from 9 a.m. – 11:30 a.m., with a tentative ceremony set for July 25.
Kiel said some who attend rural schools with small class sizes believe they’ll have no trouble practicing social distancing. “Students themselves had come up with letters to the governor saying, ‘We can do this, we can handle it,'” Kiel said. Sacred Heart in East Grand Forks has 27 graduating seniors. Red Lake Falls has 24, Warren-Alvarado-Olso has 29, and Stephen-Argyle has 18. Kiel, like many other House Republicans, has also spoken in favor of allowing small businesses to reopen in Minnesota, as unemployment numbers and financial shortfalls mount.
“We need to get businesses opened, Kiel said. “We’re starting to have some serious mental health problems (among business owners). I feel like we know so much more about this virus than when we started, and we’ve had many viruses we’ve dealt with in the past. Yes, this one has some challenges, but we need to get life moving again. Hopefully, by fall, we can then handle what comes our way at that point. I think we have the skills in our hospitals to manage this. Certainly, small businesses can handle it. They’re smart people. They’ll manage just fine.”
Gov. Walz’s shelter-in-place order is tentatively set to expire on May 18. He’s expected to address the state this week on whether or not certain businesses will be allowed to reopen by Monday.
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