Graduation goes virtual at Midview (VIDEO)

GRAFTON — Inside Midview High School on Wednesday, a smattering of claps echoed in the nearly empty building — a graduation day for some Midview seniors in the age of the coronavirus pandemic. Rather than the large ceremony crowded with parents, family members, staff and the high school seniors, a single graduate was in the gym with family members watching nearby. Morgan Seth's name was called into the microphone, and she walked up to the stage with cheers from a few staff members in attendance. "It's different," she said. Morgan Seth's mom, Tracy Seth, said this is something that will go into the history books, something no other class before 2020 has experienced before. All week, Midview seniors will walk across the stage. Everyone's walk is videoed, and the videos will be compiled into an alphabetical commencement ceremony that will be aired at the Aut-O-Rama drive-in in North Ridgeville. "That part of it adds a little bit of normalcy to the whole thing — that while they won't be able to mix and mingle, they'll be together," Midview Superintendent Bruce Willingham said. "We've got to socially distance cars even, but at the same time, you're going to see each other and that I think will make a difference." Willingham, High School Principal Tom Faska, Associate Principals Derrick Shaw and Jason Kaczay as well as a few rotating school board members were to be there for every student who walked across the stage. Each individual ceremony lasts just a few minutes, enough for the senior to walk across the stage, receive their diploma, get a photo and then have a photo taken of decorated graduation caps. In some cases, parents and seniors took more photos outside before leaving the school. Willingham said a lot of teamwork went into the plan for the graduation ceremony, and the local health department was consulted. "It's different," Willingham said. "But I mean, we've got a lot of really good feedback from our families, and they've also had a little chance to celebrate the kids. It's intimate, but it's still really nice and I think the unveiling of the movie at the end is going to be really, really nice." Graduation speeches will be filmed Friday and included in the video. The ceremony featuring the video will be at 8:30 p.m. June 4 at the Aut-O-Rama. "We're pretty proud of our regular graduation," Faska said. "I think we have one of the best ones in Lorain County. And so we wanted to try to make this one one of the best ones in Lorain County. We feel very confident it's going to be a huge success." Contact Laina Yost at (440) 329-7121 or lyost@chroniclet.com.