Xin Wang
Journalism- Editorial
High school graduation is one of the treasured moments in a person’s life. When you hear
your name being called, walk across the stage and get applauded for your accomplishments, all
the stress leading up to that moment becomes worth the struggle. All the emotions swell up as
you realize you are about to start a new part of your life.
These days, people often want to customize their experience to make it more personal.
Lately, there has been a movement to fight for the right to decorate graduation caps. Students
have brought up the issue during the Student Senate’s speakout and considered a petition,
however, the administration has struck down the movement with an iron fist.
Mr. Robilotti’s justifications for the denial of the request was the feasibility that a few
students would take the liberty to an extreme.
“It’s another layer of management. There is enough stresses [sic] as it is on the students
and the faculty to put together a nice graduation ceremony. It would be one more thing that we
would have to check and remove someone potentially, and I don’t want to do that. I’d rather
eliminate the temptation to decorate,” said Mr. Robilotti.
“I think it detracts from the event itself. It takes the focus away from the ceremony and
puts it on the decorations. I don’t think that they’re trying to hurt the event. In some cases,
maintaining a nice ceremony that does not have the potential for some students who would not
do the appropriate thing is better.
On the other hand, through my conversations with my peers, I have come to the
conclusion that most people are in favor or feel indifferent about the decision to decorated their
caps. It’s more about the journey and feeling proud of your accomplishments.
“If the student wants to, then I don’t think there should be any restrictions on it,” said
Usman Azhar.
Victoria Ramirez said, “Because our graduation is supposed to be focused on families, it
would be nice for the students to do something for themselves. Also, it’s a way of expressing
yourself or just being proud of what college or career you end up going to do.”
Although it is true that there will always be some student that take some situations too
far, they make up only a miniscule portion of the student population. This should not impact the
rest of the students. Decoration caps is a harmless action, and it just a method of celebrating an
important time in a student’s life. As stated by Ramirez, colleges and career choices are the main
focus for decoration. In fact, with a simple google search for “inappropriate graduation cap
designs,” all the images that came up were innocent and rather creative.
A solution to this dilemma would be to allow only honors students to submit a draft for
review and perform a final check before graduation. Only students who have gone through the
process would be allowed to wear their decorated caps at graduation. Before the ceremony, most
students have to stand and wait for a long time. During that open interval, the student officers of
the senior class could inspect the caps and report if any are undocumented. They could easily
switch the “inappropriate caps” with a plain spare. This easily solves the problem since no
faculty members are needed to supervise since honors students are the ones who are the least
likely to intentionally create chaos. They worked the hardest to get to where they are now, and I
think they deserve at least an opportunity to showcase their efforts. Therefore, why not lighten
up on the rules. It is the final moment in the high school path. In the end, it is really just a
celebration that is meant to be fun.
