As well know, there are two sides to every story. That was never more true than in the situation involving students and district personnel at Riverview Gardens over this year’s graduation ceremony.
By the time you read this column, the school board will already have met. And, according to one of the student leaders, they along with many parents will have attended the meeting to express their concern that their graduation ceremony was relocated from the Family Arena in St. Charles to Powell Symphony Hall in St. Louis for a few extra thousand bucks.
They want to know why the ceremony was moved so late in the year and why many of them had to find out about it on a local radio broadcast. And they want to make sure that the color of their skin had nothing to do with the decision.
The district maintains that a reservation was never made at the Family Arena and that Powell Symphony Hall was always the choice. One student told me she has proof otherwise. Now, she says instead of ten or eleven tickets for each graduate, they’ll have to decide how to distribute about four tickets.
If you remember your high school graduation, you recall that having enough seats for everyone was about as stressful as deciding who to invite to a wedding.
And, if that’s not confusing enough, last week I told you about a parent who maintains that his child, a student at Riverview, heard that ethnicity and concerns about police presence and too many black folk were the reasons for the change of venue. The parent claims that he asked a district official about it and that person confirmed the story.
Those higher up in the district say that just isn’t the case. They contend that a larger crowd would make for a noisier graduation, which would make it more difficult for family members to hear and see. Student leaders aren’t buying it, although at least one student wanted to defend her principal and point the finger of blame elsewhere.
It does seem, for now, that everyone involved is backing off earlier claims that the potential for an overreaction by police is behind the change in location. It does show how powerful our words, mine included, can be in making a difficult situation even worse.
I hope students and parents get answers to their questions. How were so many students led to believe that graduating in St. Charles was out of the question because of the color of their skin?
And how were so many led to believe that something as monumental as their high school graduation was going to be held in one location, only to find out differently three and a half months before the actual event?
And, while I’ve tried to get the story, every question I’ve asked gets me nothing but another story!