Students take action against graduation changes

by Sylvia Yu

The graduation ceremony procedure has been changed so that graduates will be seated and have their names announced alphabetically, announced Principal Ken Schlaff at the Senior Orientation in the MHS theater on September 9. The graduation is set to be held on Saturday, June 18, 2011.

Assistant Principal Cheryl Rivera usually heads the organization and planning of the graduation ceremony. In previous years, students were able to choose a teacher of their choice using a card system to read their name during the graduation ceremony, explained Rivera. The previous procedure allowed students to be seated next to their friends if they chose the same teacher to read their names.

The graduation procedure needed to be changed about five years ago, according to Rivera. “It was cumbersome. It changes up to the minute based on the way it was doing, set up, and it just created a lot of anxiety not only for the staff that were doing it, but also the teaching staff,” said Rivera. “The main reason for students, putting them alphabetically […] is for: I’d say, personally, for sanity, and for orderliness. Just not being up to the minute trying to figure things out,” said Rivera.



“You have to consider the history of how the tradition with personalization [originated]. The school was a lot smaller and things have to evolve as the numbers get bigger. I think we were trying to adjust something that really became impossible to adjust,” explained Rivera.

Rivera does not believe that the new graduation procedure will cause more problems and confusion at the ceremony. “It’ll cut down on [confusion and problems] because they’ll be in alphabetical order and you know that’s the way you’re going to be the whole time: alphabetically,” explained Rivera.

Assistant Principal Casey McMurray also aids Rivera with organizing the graduation ceremony. It may be a possibility that the order could be backwards or forwards alphabetical, agreed Rivera and McMurray. “Bottom line, it’s alphabetical,” said Assistant Principal Casey McMurray.

The old graduation procedure resulted in last second changes based on teacher preferences or student number limits, according to McMurray. “All those details, they can cause chaos, misunderstanding, and there’s a lot of unnecessary rearranging that has to go on because of that. [The rearranging] contributes to the length of time that graduation practice takes. That itself is something that provokes complaints from students and staff,” said McMurray, “A lot of it stems from the whole disorderly process that was in existence: number limit. Higher, or raise it, you’re never going to get to a point where everyone agrees with the process.”

In addition, frequently, some teachers would only have one name, and then change their minds about reading names because they didn’t want to seem unpopular, noted Rivera. It became more of a popularity contest for teachers, explained Rivera. This year, a list of teachers have already been assigned to serve on duty during the graduation ceremony, but it remains uncertain who will read names, said Rivera.
“We’re not necessarily seeing that that the teachers that are helping are the ones that are going to be reading the names. It might be the administration. We wanted the student body to read the names: the president, the vice president, the officers. That’s what they do in other schools and it personalizes the whole process. Then we would have one of [the administration] or Mr. Schlaff read the officers’ names. [But] that’s our first choice: to have students do it,” said Rivera.

The problems during graduation ceremony such as rowdiness were not a result of lack of adequate supervision, according to Rivera. The original graduation procedure yielded between 37 and 38 teachers. With the new graduation procedure, 10 teachers signed up to volunteer at the graduation ceremony. “We’ve had tons of adult supervision. For the most part, [the students] are pretty orderly but if students see an adult that’s out of order, it’s like it’s okay for them too,” explained Rivera. “There are people who don’t supervise well, I would say. I don’t think that they’re doing it purposely. I think they’re caught up in the activity,” said Rivera.

In the 2008-2009 school year, there was a revision to the graduation procedure limiting 25 students per teacher in order to make supervision at graduation more efficient. However, the 25-student limit was repealed after a petition was put forth by the Class of 2009. “Kids were supposed to give their names to teachers. That didn’t happen, so kids were just supposed to hand the card back to that particular teacher. Instead of everyone collecting the cards all as a group, no matter whose name was on it so we could just dole it out, kids walked around campus with the cards, and lost them. We got some [cards] and not others. It just became like crazy. Up till graduation we had people picking up their tickets,” said Rivera.
The deadlines are also not the main cause of disorder at graduation, according to Rivera. We’ve had deadlines from day one, said Rivera. “If you were even to look at other high schools, neighboring high schools, further down, either way, you’ll find that alphabetically is the way that they’re doing it. I mean, we were the exception and now it’s become such an uncontrollable kind of event that we need to go back to the way it worked well,” said Rivera.

The graduation process also changed about 10 years ago when it was not dignified, revealed Rivera. “The students did anything to their caps and gowns; they decorated it in any way. There were parents on the field; people were just running around doing whatever,” said Rivera.

“[Graduation is] an event not only for [students], but also for family because they’ve been waiting 13 years for this to happen. And we want it to be fun, we want it to be dignified, we want it to be something memorable,” said Rivera.
The 2011 graduation is the first graduation at MHS Assistant Principal Stephanie Ceminsky is helping to organize. “Even with changes, the goal is still to provide an exciting day for students and recognize that this is an exciting day. It’s their graduation, so the goal for graduation has never changed even though the process has changed. It’s still going to be a very special day for students and we recognize that,” said Ceminsky.

Rumors that the graduation ceremony would be held at a different venue other than the MHS football field were disclaimed. It’s unlikely that the graduation will take place anywhere else except the MHS football field because we don’t want to make it not accessible to everyone, indicated Rivera.

Senior Kristine Vu first heard about the change in graduation procedure in early August. “I heard it rotate around Facebook and Tumblr,” said Vu. Vu created the group “Protest the new graduation policy!” on Facebook. As of October, the group had 113 members. I decided right when I heard the policy changed to make a Facebook group, according to Vu. “[The group] makes people more aware. Some teachers have Facebooks so they saw. Hopefully they’ll participate,” said Vu. “People should just protest because the policy is just really inefficient,” added Vu.

Seniors Heather Boyd and Tram Nguyen also heard about the graduation procedure at the beginning of the school year. Boyd and Nguyen began a petition that was revised four times before it was passed around because it was still unknown at the time who would be reading the student names during the graduation ceremony, according to Boyd. The petition was later found to be invalid because it did not have the information with each signature page that was passed around, according to Nguyen. The invalid petitions had about 300 student signatures, indicated Nguyen.
When Boyd and Nguyen found that another student had started a petition, they decided to discontinue with their petition. “I’ll support their way of petitioning,” said Boyd. “If we get enough students showing their disapproval of the new plan and encourage parents showing support, then the administration would have to make some sort of compromise,” pointed out Boyd.

ASB President Senior Mary Kay De Guzman started her own petition on behalf of the senior class when she heard that Boyd and Nguyen discontinued their petition.
The administration should have consulted the student body before making changes to the graduation procedure, said De Guzman. “I understand the administration's point of view, but I think they should also remember that there are other ways to solve problems. ASB officers as well as senior class officers are willing to help with the logistical stuff,” said De Guzman

De Guzman also emailed Superintendant Dr. Karl Black regarding the new graduation procedure change. Black was unaware of the new changes, according to De Guzman. “I informed him that this change was being made and that the students aren't really in favor of this change. He replied to me and said that he would talk to Mr. Schlaff, which he did. He understands our side of the issue but I also understand that he also has to support the administration,” said De Guzman.
Schlaff spoke with De Guzman on October 7 and explained that if De Guzman organized a small group of students to put the student opinion forward, provide solutions, in addition to presenting the petition, then Schlaff and Rivera would hold a meeting with that group for further discussions, according to De Guzman. “I still need to get that group together and figure out a solution from there. So it's still tentative. The main point is that administration is still considering reverting back to the previous procedure,” said De Guzman.

Senior Ramina Tumber heard rumors about the graduation procedure change from her friends but didn’t believe it until Schlaff announced it at the Senior Orientation. “I don’t think I’m going to have a good time [at graduation]. The ceremony is going to be tedious with the names being called out in alphabetical order. I would get so bored. I would like [to sit] with my friends and the teacher that impacted me the most,” indicated Tumber. “If the administration really wanted to put this change efficiently and smoothly, they should’ve enforced this on the incoming freshmen who don’t know much about the graduation,” said Tumber.