A Web connection

By MIKE JAMES - The Independent

RACELAND May 26, 2008 11:44 pm

— War or not, Afghanistan is no place to be when your child is graduating from high school.
But that’s where Wendell Morris is now, and where he will be Friday, when his son Johnathan walks across the stage at Raceland High School to claim his diploma.
Deployed with the National Guard 201st Engineer Battalion, Morris left for the Middle East three weeks ago and doesn’t expect to get back before March.
Luckily for him, Raceland’s technology department is setting up a webcast of the ceremony Morris will be able to watch on his laptop computer.
The camera is set up and district techies are fine-tuning the computer connection, said technology coordinator Janie Tolliver. The district had plans in the works to develop webcasting capability for sports and other such events, and knowing Morris was overseas and missing his family prompted them to ramp up their efforts, she said.
Morris is a technology education teacher and his wife Marianne is a teacher and counselor in the district. Johnathan is their only child.
The video connection means a lot because graduation is the stuff memories are made of, according to Marianne Morris. “It’s like your child taking his first steps.”
With the resilience of a teenager, Johnathan Morris is taking his dad’s absence in stride, but he admits to missing him more as the big day nears.
“The closer it gets, the more it hits me,” he said.
But at least he had a few weeks to get used to the idea before his father left, he said. “We started hanging out more than we had.”
And now he’s glad to know his dad will be watching when he takes the long walk across the stage.
Those who are interested in the Raceland graduation will be able to view it through a link on the district’s Web site.
Tolliver will archive the video, although only the audio will be kept at the Web site. But she’ll be able to burn DVDs at cost for those interested, she said.
MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2652.