Coronavirus: Iowa grads sit 10 feet apart as high school holds ceremony on football field

CORNING, Iowa — In the Iowa town where late-night talk show host Johnny Carson was born nearly 95 years ago, graduates at a local high school were able to put on their own show.

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The 45 graduates at Southwest Valley High School in Corning celebrated graduation in person Sunday and even walked across the stage. The students at the western Iowa high school sat in chairs 10 feet apart and waited for their names to be called, KCCI reported.

Adams County has not seen a large number of coronavirus cases, so school officials believed that with proper social distancing, a graduation ceremony was feasible.

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Each graduate had a marked-off section of the football field and kept a safe distance from classmates. The graduates wore masks, and all students had their temperatures taken before they walked onto the field, KCCI reported.

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“They worked 12 to 13 years of part of their life trying to get things accomplished and then we run into this kind of situation and it’s an important step for them in their life," Vince Abraham, a parent, told the television station. “We’ll see where they go from this step on.”

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