Graduating seniors of Lafayette Parish public schools won't walk across the stage at the Cajundome this week due to a disconnect between local and state leaders.
Lafayette Parish School System administrators learned Monday that high school graduation ceremonies planned for Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Cajundome could not go on as planned.
The graduations, which were originally planned for May, will not be postponed again, according to a statement for the school system. Commencement ceremonies will still take place this week, more than likely at outdoor venues.
The Lafayette School Board announced Monday that an emergency meeting would take place 5:30 p.m. Tuesday if necessary, although new plans could be in place before then.
"In a perfect world, we would have held it at the Cajundome and shown everyone how it's done," said Lafayette Parish School Board President Britt Latiolais. "We had a solid plan, and we were very transparent with everybody. We even released our plan to the public a week ago or so."
But emails sent between employees of the Cajundome, Louisiana Department of Health and Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal reveal that Lafayette Parish graduation plans never received state approval.
"After discussions with several representatives of LDH, there is not a consensus to authorize gatherings of these numbers at this time due to the recent spike in the number of positive COVID-19 cases," a dispatcher with the state fire marshal's office wrote in a Monday email to Cajundome Director Pam DeVille. "It has been recommended that your proposed events not occur with the crowd sizes proposed."
Latiolais said School System administrators thought their plans — which addressed temperature checks, seat spacing, mask requirements, attendee limits and more — clearly followed state guidelines to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Phase 1 of Louisiana's reopening plan, which went into effect May 15, allowed for venues like the Cajundome to reopen at 25% capacity. Phase 2 allowed reopening at 50% capacity beginning June 5.
Lafayette High's graduation ceremony, the largest in the district, would have only filled the venue to 19% capacity, Latiolais said.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards implemented additional safety precautions on June 26, however, after the state saw a sustained spike in coronavirus cases. One of those measures limited all indoor gatherings to no more than 250 people when social distancing could not be observed.
Lafayette Mayor-President Josh Guillory also implemented stricter COVID-19 measures for Lafayette Parish on June 26 in an effort to control community spread of the virus. His measures limited all indoor and outdoor gatherings of 200 or more people, with a few exceptions, including the planned graduation ceremonies.
Confirmed cases and hospitalizations related to the virus have continued to rise at an alarming rate in Lafayette Parish and the Acadiana region.
"Personally, I thought we'd be in Phase 3 right now," Latiolais said. "I think we all kind of did. That's why we made the decision to do graduation in July instead of holding it outside in a stadium in May like some of the other districts."
The School System announced last week that graduates and attendees would be required to wear face masks at the ceremonies in an effort to reduce the risk of further community spread of the virus. Attendance at the ceremonies would be capped at 25% capacity of the Cajundome, with each student receiving four tickets for guests, school officials said.
Ashley Rodrigue, spokeswoman for the State Fire Marshal's Office, said some schools across the state have broken up graduating classes into smaller ceremonies while others have hosted outdoor ceremonies instead, where gatherings aren't limited to 250 people as long as the venue is at or below 50% of its total capacity.
"Of course we understand that this is such a trying time or families that look forward to celebrating these teenagers' academic accomplishments by walking across the stage," Rodrigue said. "But at the same time, we're all in this situation where the health experts are really advising limits to gatherings, whether it be outside or inside. The governor has established these best practices based on what the health experts are saying."
Lafayette Parish school board members and school system administrators are working tirelessly to ensure graduating seniors get the ceremonies they deserve, Latiolais said.
Schools won't be broken up into smaller groups. Instead, the plan as of Monday evening was to focus on moving ceremonies outdoors.
It will be a challenge since tracks at three of the district's high schools — Acadiana, Carencro and Comeaux — are under construction this summer.
"These students, the class of 2020, deserves something great. They really do," Latiolais said. "These students started the school year two weeks late as freshmen because of the 2016 flood, and now they're going through a pandemic. They had prom taken from them. Ring ceremonies. Awards ceremonies. Some athletics. And to receive notice so late when the School System and the staff did the best they could, I'm sure a lot of people are disappointed. They're heartbroken right now. We're heartbroken right now, but we're going to do everything in our power to give them what they deserve."
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