Tuesday marked the first day Fort Wayne Community School seniors could pick up their caps and gowns, the first step to a virtual graduation ceremony later in June.
South Side Principal Adam Swinford welcomes the students as they trickle in Tuesday morning, his face covered by a green bandana mask.
There, under the entrance to the football stadium, they pick up their bright green caps and gowns, a yard sign, and any other piece of Class of 2020 memorabilia. A photographer was on hand to take a formal picture.
Swinford said he’d taken for granted the social interaction with his students prior to the pandemic.
"I haven’t had this much energy in a long time,” he said. "I’ve got some of them I have to run from them, because they want to give me a hug."
Senior Kaile Bass heads to the table to pick up her stuff.
She has mixed feelings about it, and is sad that she can’t hug her classmates, or visit with her principal.
But she’s wise about the situation too, and quickly puts it into perspective.
She says there’s a global pandemic going on, and that changes everything.
"You feel you should to be able to do more. There’s nothing you can do," she said. "You can’t really go around it, you just basically go with the flow and hopefully it will play out how you hope it do."
When the fall comes, Kaile has plans to return to school. She’ll be going to IvyTech. She wants to be a nurse.
