The Class of 2020, in cars, is on parade this weekend in Kansas City area districts
Because of COVID-19, the Kansas City area’s Class of 2020 won’t don a cap and gown and cross the stage to “Pomp and Circumstance” this month.
So instead, some get a parade. Others get a drive-up photo shoot in full regalia.
A few school districts are sticking with May graduation ceremonies, but online only. Most are waiting for June or July, hoping the coronavirus will have ebbed enough that they can have in-person commencement.
In the meantime, parents in several districts organized parades for this weekend and next, with graduates set to drive cars decorated to reflect their personality, much in the way they would have blinged out their caps at traditional ceremonies. Family and friends will line the routes, waving signs and banners, ringing cow bells and shouting praise.
Corrin Parsons, whose son, Noah, is graduating from Liberty North High School, came up with the parade idea in her district. Her son, she said, was born with a heart condition and was in and out of the hospital his first years of life.
“Now he is this awesome healthy kid and this day was the day I had been waiting for for a long time,” Parsons said.
“I know that with this coronavirus pandemic there are worse things than a kid not graduating” with a ceremony, she said. “I mean people are dying. People are sick. People are losing their jobs. But I needed something good. We needed something good. And we really have worked hard to respect the gravity of the pandemic. I get it 100%.”
But not everyone is sure the good idea is a safe one. Some are worried that such events may violate social distancing restrictions to limit the spread of the virus.
In a Facebook discussion, one Olathe parent said she worries that a parade involving seniors from all the district’s high schools, their family and friends, won’t be safe.
“I would also love to find a way to celebrate our seniors,” Laurissa Patterson wrote. “This just makes me so nervous.”
Health officials say the parades can be safe if done properly.
“As long as social distancing is enforced and everyone stays in their cars as asked by the event organizers, Clay County Public Health Center is happy they have found a fun and safe way to celebrate graduating seniors this year,” said Kelsey Neth, spokeswoman for the center in Liberty.
On the Kansas side, under Gov. Laura Kelly’s reopening plan, such large events are not allowed until Monday, but Johnson County health officials have not objected to the car parades there either.
In Liberty, some Clay County sheriff’s deputies are stepping in to help guide the cars through some of the city’s main streets.
Olathe police are aware of the event there but aren’t involved because it doesn’t involve city permits, traffic control or the closing of streets. The Olathe parade takes place at 4 p.m. Sunday in the parking lot of the defunct Great Mall of the Great Plains.
Olathe’s in-person graduation ceremonies are set for July, but some students will be out of town, so “this may be the last chance for a lot of these kids to see each other,” said Mari Burns, whose daughter, Tayah Harker, is graduating from Olathe Northwest High School. “It’s not a party. It’s just a drive by. A chance to show them some love.”
Since the coronavirus struck the Kansas City region, Olathe police said, every week they get five to 10 requests for some type of car parade, which has become the new way folks are celebrating everything from birthdays to homecomings to funerals, or to just say hey to friends.
‘The year ended abruptly’
Since schools closed in March due to the virus, seniors have lost out on traditional end-of-year activities that mark their passage toward adulthood, including prom, final sports seasons and graduation parties.
In a note honoring the Class of 2020, Olathe Superintendent John Allison wrote, “We all wish that this year could have ended differently and that the special moments you were looking forward to in your final weeks in high school could have continued in the way they were planned.
“I’m sorry that the year ended abruptly, but I want to thank you for your patience and understanding.” He reminded the class of the adversity they have come through, having been born just after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and lived through the Great Recession. “You all were born to lead. This is your moment. We are so very proud of you.”
College seniors have had a similar experience missing out on rites of passage. University of Kansas, University of Missouri and University of Missouri-Kansas City all celebrate their graduates with virtual ceremonies this week and weekend, with hopes of in-person ceremonies later in the year.
High schools in the North Kansas City district are planning virtual ceremonies later this month. But on Friday, Oak Park High School graduates got to put on their caps and gowns for a drive-up photo shoot at the school — jumping out of the car, posing and jumping back in.
“It was fun,” said Ashlyn Jones, who plans to attend cosmetology school in the fall. The 18-year-old said that missing out on so much is what she will remember most about her senior year at Oak Park. “But, it’s OK. It’s really just small stuff that we all took for granted, and now we are a little sad that it’s gone.”
Seniors on parade
High school graduates in Blue Springs, where official in-person ceremonies are set for July, have planned small car parades next Friday night around the perimeter of their schools.
Olathe’s parade planners invited the students of each of the district’s five high schools to drive in a loop at the site of the former Great Mall of the Great Plains on Sunday. Spectators will stand in the middle.
Liberty parents said they have been planning Sunday’s parades for their two high schools for weeks.
And, Parsons said, they “really put a lot of thought into social distancing.” They brought in a company to manage parking. And on digital fliers, they encourage social distancing and spectators and volunteers to wear masks. They even plan to post signs along the routes reminding those cheering on graduates to stand six feet from one another.
“We don’t want to set rules, but we do want safety,” Parsons said.
She is expecting about 400 students for each of the two parades’ six-mile routes, plus thousands more celebrating them.
Initially, students on social media talked about loading their cars up with friends or riding in the bed of a pickup. But parents quickly nixed those ideas, saying that any car packed with students won’t be allowed in the staging site. And no students will be allowed to ride in the bed of a pickup during the parade. Students won’t be permitted to hang outside windows or sunroofs either.
A mobile DJ will play the traditional graduation march. At the staging area, seniors will drive up to a photo station, where a professional photographer will snap their picture as they sit behind the wheel. They aren’t permitted to get out of their cars.
“It is not a normal parade, it is a parade during a pandemic,” said Joe McBride, whose daughter Audrey is graduating from Liberty High School. “We just wanted to give them something and send them off in a way that they will remember. This is supposed to be a good thing. We don’t want anything bad to happen. Organizers are doing all they can to make it as safe as possible.”
Each of the parades will begin at the high schools: Liberty North at noon and Liberty High School at 3 p.m. Parsons said the six mile routes should give families plenty of room to spread out.
“I really hope, no I pray, that people will do the right thing and social distance,” she said.
This story was originally published May 16, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
