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Fallbrook High holds virtual ceremony, graduates to pick up diplomas in person

Fallbrook Union High School seniors and their families were able to watch a virtual graduation ceremony Wednesday, June 3, but received news Tuesday that there will be another series of events to celebrate seniors, this time in person.

Within the next two weeks, the school will welcome seniors back for a drive-thru ceremony to hand each student their diploma. The diploma ceremonies will be done alphabetically, as determined by the school.

It is a small victory for the school, which has been encouraged by parents to find a way to do some sort of in-person celebration. Principal Dr. Narciso Iglesias has been working for a month on the virtual presentation and is excited to be able to hand the diplomas to students thanks to this new development.

"I'm extremely excited about it," Iglesias said. "Parents and students have been asking for different opportunities to have a graduation. Again, it's not the ideal scenario, but it is something that parents have now started to ask about since they've seen other drive-thru graduation ceremonies in nearby areas. So, I'm extremely excited that we're able to offer this opportunity, although limited and not ideal, but it's happening. And we get to have some closure and we are able to give our students their diplomas as well."

Details would be sent to senior students and parents, but Iglesias assured that all safety protocols will be in place to make sure that the school was adhering to the guidelines laid out by the county, state and Center for Disease Control.

Iglesias is also aware that not everyone will be happy with the virtual graduation and the added drive-thru diploma ceremony and many will still hold out hope for a summertime event where all the seniors can get together.

"I know the expectation is a traditional graduation," Iglesias said. "That's still the sentiment that I get in emails and voice voicemails that hopefully the regulations ease and COVID-19 is long gone ...."

But, Dr. Iglesias stressed that the drive-through ceremony is what the school can do based on county guidelines and the school does not have plans to host another event later in the summer.

Iglesias said that many, many hours have gone into producing the virtual ceremony and he is hoping that seniors and families will be pleased with the end result.

The video was to be broadcast Wednesday evening, after press time, and Village News interviewed the principal Tuesday morning.

"We recorded video messages from students, the superintendent and myself," Iglesias said. "I'm creating these slide presentations of students' pictures and then either an accomplishment or a future goal or both. Then, at the end of the video, the students gave me their pictures and memories of their senior year to add to it.

"The whole thing is about two hours. I think I'm capturing as much as I can. I haven't slept for the past couple of days working on this," he said.

Jeff Pack can be reached by email at [email protected].

 

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