Four seniors lose appeal to walk at graduation

Four seniors at Lake Roosevelt Jr/Sr High School lost an appeal to the school board Tuesday night, after asking the board to let them walk across the stage at graduation with their peers.

The seniors had reportedly bought alcohol on the senior trip to Disneyland the prior weekend, which they had promised not to do. The board had heard the appeals of four students in a meeting last Thursday and decided not to counter the administration's decision.

The appeals of their classmates played out in the school library Tuesday night, where the board met in a special session to hear the views of other students. About 30 students and adults attended. Four spoke.

Some suggested other approaches, such as imposing community service, or requiring an essay. They felt the sentence - not walking in the ceremony at graduation this coming Saturday - was too harsh, despite that it's spelled out in policy as a consequence.

One student insisted the current senior class has been the best behaved in many years, compared with past classes who "have gotten blackout drunk." She said one mistake shouldn't be dealt with so harshly.

But board members pushed back at being made out to be the bad guys.

Shannon Nicholson, "pretty pissed off that I'm put in a position to make this decision," pointed out that "you had a plan ... this isn't just one mistake. This is a number of choices, conscious decisions: to go down there, to put your money together, to get more people to go to the store, to walk to the store, to apparently find a tweaker to purchase your alcohol, to get caught by Mr. Brewster (then be) given an opportunity to change course, to not change course, to come back, and still continue with the choice."

George LaPlace pointed out that if police had been involved, under California law, the seniors could have faced fines and community service and possibly even gained a criminal record.

"There's so much more at play here than one night, one mistake, and one day crossing the stage," said Rich Black, the board chair. "This event is going to impact what the school does going forward. We are going to review the policy on how senior trips are run. And not because we're cruel, but because we can't trust the people in senior classes to do what they said they would do, which is abide not just by school regulations, but abide by the law."

Black said the board would stand by its original decision made last week: the four found with alcohol will not walk in graduation.

Superintendent Rod Broadnax said later in the evening that he'd been "cussed out a couple of times" after the close of the meeting, but that was OK.

"I told (the board) that if we're going to change the culture of the school, that sometimes they're going to have to make tough decisions, he said. "They made one tonight."