HALIFAX Some Maritime school districts are already making the call about this year s prom and graduation ceremonies for high school students. The superintendent of New Brunswick s Anglophone East School District, Gregg Ingersoll, sent a letter to Grade 12 students and their parents last week saying they plan to alter their graduation ceremonies in order to follow COVID-19 public health guidelines. In the letter sent to students and parents, it reads, Due to the state of the pandemic, schools are not able to host traditional graduation activities including prom, athletic and academic banquets, and safe grad. There are some guidelines that New Brunswick graduation ceremonies must follow, which include:
An overnight snowfall has cancelled or delayed the start of school in several areas of New Brunswick.
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Schools have closed and buses delayed in several areas of the province.(CBC) comments
An overnight snowfall has cancelled or delayed the start of school in several areas of New Brunswick.
Schools in the Anglophone East School District have been cancelled for the day because of the snow.
All schools in the Francophone South School District, except in Fredericton, are closed for the day.
Rexton and Miramichi schools in Anglophone North are also closed.
Meanwhile, buses in the Anglophone South School District have been delayed for two hours, but schools are expected to open on time.
A letter went home to parents of graduating students last week.
Superintendent Gregg Ingersoll says it wasn’t a decision they took lightly, “We can’t wait until deep into the spring to make those decisions. So we’ve made a decision based on what we know today about COVID-19 and alert levels that we will no have any graduation activities outside of the actual graduation ceremony itself. For the schools and for the families, and everyone, we don’t want leave people thinking there is a chance something might happen and then all of a sudden say late in May that we can’t do it. That’s what happened last year.”
That s why we want to try to look at this overall picture of having adults in the system aware of what abuse looks like, what is professional behaviour and what isn t, and have the opportunity for our students to understand what is appropriate and inappropriate contact with adults, said Kirkpatrick.
Kirkpatrick said the committee wants to focus on three p s: policy, program and practice.
The policy would lay out what is and isn t acceptable, the program would offer seminars for volunteers, and practice would encourage people to point out abuse.
Kirkpatrick said signs of abuse could be a coach taking a student athlete to supper, inviting a student to activities not open to teammates, or having a relationship on social media.