Prom and Graduation: How Pittsburgh schools are working through COVID-19 concerns

PITTSBURGH — School districts have had a lot to contend with this year.

Many in our area still have to shut down buildings because of rising COVID-19 cases, but that’s not stopping districts from moving forward with prom and graduation plans to try to give these high school seniors a sendoff worth remembering.

There’s no doubt senior year has been an adjustment for students like Allyson Brumley. She’s student class vice president at Greensburg Salem — and despite all that’s been lost for seniors — she’s helping to organize this year’s junior-senior prom after last year’s was canceled.

“It makes me feel a lot better knowing we can leave Greensburg having this. We know a lot of kids this is what they wanted, so it made me and the officers feel more proud just to be able to say we’re going to do it and do it safely,” she stated.

Greensburg Salem Principal David Zilli said that the staff wants the students to gain these memories.

“We want them to have a memorable experience and try to do as many of the traditional things and in the places we couldn’t do the traditional, we tried to supplement something that would be a replacement,” Zilli explained.

School districts like Greensburg-Salem — Latrobe, Norwin and Hempfield are all still trying to give kids a normal high school experience by hosting a prom.

While Greensburg Salem is doubling the size of the dance floor — Hempfield is removing the dance floor altogether and offering more casino games and outdoor seating.

“As long we function within the rules that are set forth, it’s not very much different than being in school. Right now we have 20-25 students in one classroom, at times less than six feet, but we’re going to expect students at prom to be a minimum of six feet apart.”

However, districts like Derry are opting out of a prom. After a survey, most students weren’t interested in a dance with restrictions like not having a dance floor, mask mandates, and a mandatory 14-day quarantine.

“We tried to do our due diligence with regards to surveying the student body, asking them their thoughts, and that’s how we determined it’s not going to be feasible for the district to offer a school-sponsored prom.”

Many of those districts are also continuing with tradition by having their grand marches — either outside in their home stadiums or right here at Greensburg High School.

Proud to be from Pittsburgh: Taking prom online during the COVID-19 pandemic Proud to be from Pittsburgh: Taking prom online during the COVID-19 pandemic