Gilmer cancels make-up graduation along with other July activities

Gilmer County Board of Education and Administration

ELLIJAY, Ga. – In addition to this weeks announcement of cancelling the prom, Gilmer High School has also announced that they will be cancelling the graduation ceremony scheduled for July 17.

According to a statement from Gilmer High School, “Gilmer County Schools and Gilmer High School have been in contact with the Gilmer County Department of Health and Gilmer County Emergency Management for the past several days to make decisions regarding events scheduled to take place at the high school. Even though all of our events were planned in a manner to keep students and staff safe, we have been advised against holding large group gatherings (those with more than 50 people in attendance) at this time, even if being held outside. We initially planned to have students on the field, seated six-feet apart, and allow only two guests per student to accommodate social distancing requirements in the stands. Due to the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in our community, we have been advised by officials to cancel the graduation event scheduled for Friday, July 17th.”

As with previous graduations, this year’s event was scheduled to be held outside on the football field.

However, Graduation is not the only event being cancelled or having restrictions as sports and other activities to be held in July as students are trying to slowly start returning to school.

The statement said, “With regard to sports on the high school campus, we are following strict guidelines from GHSA with regard to social distancing, hand sanitizing and the sanitizing of equipment. Athletes are screened each day, which includes temperature checks, and their responses are recorded to help with contact tracing. Over the past few days, we have had 13 student athletes, some of whom were in attendance at a community event last week (where several people have tested positive for COVID-19) and others who were identified during the screening process, who are being quarantined and cannot participate in practice for the next 14 days. Two sports, wrestling and cheerleading, have cancelled practice until further notice. We continue to monitor the remaining sports still practicing and are prepared to cancel their practices for 14 days should that be necessary.”

Gilmer High’s Marching band has postponed their “Band Camp” from Monday, July 13, to Monday, July 20. Next week they will work with small groups of students for easier monitoring, and then full Band Camp will begin on July 20th.

The High School said, “It is much easier to monitor small groups of students on a daily basis, than it would have been for us to comply with the necessary guidelines to ensure the safety of more than 400 students at prom, and an additional 600 at graduation.”

They went on to add, “This is not what any of us wanted for our students. We all believe in giving our students the greatest high school experiences possible, but will never risk the health and safety of anyone. We greatly appreciate everyone’s understanding and look forward to being able to have everyone back together soon.”

Lonnie Adams