Schools

Stagg Graduates Rally for 'Do Over' Ceremony

Weather forced the district to move the school's May 20 graduation ceremony indoors, and students felt they were not given the pleasure of a well-planned celebration.

Recent Stagg graduates disappointed with a ceremony moved indoors during inclement weather aired their concerns online—and moved the district to do something about it.

Graduates started a change.org petition, along with a Facebook group urging administrators to give them "a positive and formal memory that launched us into the world." And it worked.

Following the students' concerns about the May 20 ceremony, District 230 administrators issued a survey to graduates' families over the weekend, asking for feedback on the event and if an additional ceremony would be preferred. After fielding responses, the district decided to hold a supplementary ceremony, set for Saturday, May 31 at 10 a.m. 

The ceremony will be held in the school's north gym, with a video stream to spillover audience in a separate gym. 

"We wanted to make sure we gave them a good memory of their last days as Chargers, which is why we sent the survey," said District 230 Director of Communications Carla Erdey. 

In the petition for a new ceremony, students blamed the district for lack of planning to accommodate inclement weather threatening the original outdoor ceremony, but that wasn't the case, Erdey said.

The district had been monitoring radar and weather reports prior to the ceremony—even turning to air traffic controllers for guidance—all indicating the storm would move through after the ceremony. 

But the weather struck sooner than planned, with lightning forcing the call to move the ceremony indoors. 

"It can’t all happen in a minute's notice," Erdey said. " We moved 4,000 people into the building, went with 'Plan C.'

"The ceremony was not the one we wanted [for them]."

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