Monday, August 30 was picture day for Park City High School students and many seniors were surprised to learn that they would not be wearing graduation gowns in their pictures.

For the past two years, seniors at the high school have not worn gowns in their pictures due to COVID-19. 

“We are going to try to create as much normalcy as possible for our seniors this year, but we recognize that there are going to be limitations to what we can do,” said Principle Roger Arbabi.

“I’m going to be honest, I was kind of excited we didn’t have to wear them because picture day is a form of expression for students, but at the same time there was disappointment of not getting to participate in tradition,” said Jamie Forchic, a senior at Park City High School.

Traditionally, a few of these gowns are passed around for senior students to wear in pictures, since they have not yet received their personal ones. But the worry of transmitting COVID-19 via these shared gowns has caused this tradition to stop.

“We thought in June that we were through most of it, but with the rise in Delta variant and the numbers surging as fast as they are, we are just finding that we have to be really really careful,” said Arbabi.