Board Needs to Focus on Evening Graduation

It has come to my attention that the latest excuse by school administration for not holding this year’s senior graduation on Friday, June 21st at 6 p.m. is the Jewish Sabbath.  

This line of thinking is completely without merit and frankly, quite hypocritical. WHRHS football games are on Friday nights, the bi-annual choir concerts are on Friday nights, the school play and musical are on Friday nights, and I’m sure a prolonged scroll through the school calendar would reveal other Friday night events held at or sanctioned by the school.

All of a sudden school admin is worried about offending the Jews? Please. This is an insult to our intelligence.

Even if this reasoning WAS of any merit, I’m sure that you are all well aware that the Jewish Sabbath does not even begin until SUNDOWN, at which time candles are lit to welcome the holiday. I have been informed by Temple Har Shalom, the institution with the largest Jewish membership in the area, that candle-lighting does not even occur until 8:14 pm that evening. This renders your argument for not holding the graduation at 6 p.m. completely bogus.

As to the weather concern, no one involved here is a meteorologist. In the last few years of extreme weather events in our state, there could easily be rain, snow, earthquakes, hurricanes or locusts at 10 in the morning, just as there could be at 6 in the evening.

All that said,  it is quite apparent that there is some hidden motive for the school to continue its insistence of the proposed 10:00 a.m. ceremony, and that whatever that secret motive is, it is clearly more important to  than the wishes of your very own students, and the parents of those students who pay each and every one of your salaries. You have already bungled this entire matter enough; I haven’t even mentioned the havoc this has wreaked on the senior student government and Project Graduation Committee and frankly don’t have the energy or patience to go into that yet again.

It is time for you to do the right thing, and do what is best for the people you are paid by. I urge you to put aside whatever your hidden agenda is and hold an evening ceremony, as there has always been.

 Nancy Marsillo