La Mirada HS seniors threaten to boycott virtual graduation
Photo by Alex Dominguez
LA MIRADA - Seniors at La Mirada High School have threatened to boycott their virtual ceremony, citing frustrations with communication between them and the Norwalk / La Mirada School District.
Even as elected leaders flirt with the idea of a gradual reopening of society in the wake of COVID-19, large gathering events hang in limbo. With the current school year just weeks from finishing up, many colleges and districts have resorted to online graduation ceremonies to celebrate their students who are moving on.
However, a group of La Mirada students have expressed feelings that an in-person ceremony is still just as important to have.
According to 18-year-old Michael Michener, one of the seniors at La Mirada leading the charge, attempts to create dialogue with the district and the school about a future ceremony have been unfruitful.
“Our school district released a statement to seniors which basically stated that given the current pandemic, our senior activities had been canceled, and they had instead chosen to do a virtual graduation,” said Michener. “Unlike other school districts in the area, they gave really no mention as to whether or not we were planning on doing another ceremony in the future.”
“We’ve continued to reach out to administrators and to the district trying to get answers from them, and what we’ve pretty much been told was that there is no guarantees that we’re going to have anything in the future.”
NLMUSD’s website has been updated to include a page dedicated to information and questions about the currently scheduled virtual ceremonies. There, the district does say that there remains a possibility of a future in-person ceremony, which – should social distancing measures lift and guidelines be adjusted – the Board of Education would discuss.
In the meantime, Michener says that the district has stonewalled he and his fellow students from any kind of discussions.
While Michener says that “safety is our number one priority,” he and his fellow seniors want assurance that “there will still be something there for us.”
Michener and his fellow seniors fighting for their ceremony have drawn their line in the sand at June 13: the day that their virtual graduation is currently scheduled.
If there is no dialogue established before then, then Michener says that they will not tune in to their virtual ceremony.
“We just want to make sure that in light of everything that is happening right now, we as seniors aren’t forgotten,” said Michener. “For us, the virtual ceremony is of course something that they’re just trying to do at this moment in time, and we are appreciative that they have tried to make some form of effort to doing these kind of things.”
“But for many of us who have worked for the last 12 years…it’s that principle of being able to walk down the aisle that first time; that experience that we’re never going to be able to receive and the closure that we’re never going to get from not being in high school. That’s a big part of what we’re missing here, the closure of being able to say goodbye to our friends, to the faculty, to the teachers that have taught us for multiple years.”