This past Sunday, many deserving students celebrated the culmination of years of hard work by participating in Orion High School's commencement ceremony.
One young lady, however, was not permitted to participate because of an oversight on the part of the school system. The young lady I refer to is Lauren Shook of Osco.
Lauren completed all required coursework and needed only to take a final as part of a correspondence course. When the week of graduation arrived and the final had still not been seen, Lauren took it upon herself to find out where it was and when she could take it. The school was responsible for overseeing the course and getting the final to Lauren and it didn’t happen.
On Tuesday of last week, Lauren, along with her parents, began to pursue every possible avenue they could in order for Lauren to be able to participate in this past Sunday’s events.
They spoke with the high school principal and the school counselor and were told that, should certain conditions be met, Lauren would be able to walk with the rest of the class. All conditions were met and as of Saturday afternoon, Lauren was told she would be in attendance.
As Lauren was preparing to leave for commencement exercises on Sunday afternoon, a call came from a school board member, who was trying to mediate the situation, telling Lauren that she was not allowed to participate.
This decision was made on the part of Principal Ron Harris and Superintendent David Deets. I find it inexcusable that two people who are paid to see that students get a quality education and are able to graduate, instead, refused to work with the Shooks to make sure that happened for Lauren.
The Shooks were not looking for an exception to any rules; rather, to abide by them and give the school what they required for graduation.
As the school was responsible for this oversight in the first place, the principal, then the superintendent, should have done everything possible to correct this mistake.
Lauren proved herself to be the mature young woman I have come to know her as, by attending the ceremony, singing in the choir and cheering on her fellow classmates even though she, herself, lost a day that she will never get back.
You only get one high school graduation and she was not allowed to participate in hers through no fault of her own. It is my hope that the good citizens of Orion as well as the school board will demand some accountability for the actions of Principal Harris and Superintendent Deets.
Jennifer Johnston
