Last week my student graduated from Hillside Junior High. On May 24, all the parents received a letter informing us that this year parents would not be invited to attend graduation. The reasons given were space and safety issues, all of which were valid reasons for graduation not to be held in the auditorium as in years past.
However, many other suggestions had been made by the School Community Council, and these all were nixed by the school principal, Millie Fletcher. Despite other options, she remained firm in her decision to refuse parents the right and privilege to attend the graduation.I, along with many others, contacted her by telephone to voice our objection and to suggest other options. These were listened to and dismissed without further argument. I spoke with members of the School Community Council and was informed that many options had been put forth as far back as January, so these suggestions were not made in haste.
Since parents received the letter so late in the year, Ms. Fletcher's answer was that it was too late to make any changes. A group of parents met with her, and one couple had taken the time to measure out the courtyard, and put forth a valid option to the current one of disallowing parents to attend. Once again it fell on deaf and uninterested ears.
I have had three students graduate from Hillside, and they were pleasant and well-planned promotion exercises. I wanted the same for my current student.
On the day of the promotion, we decided to attend anyway, and we were allowed to sit on the back five rows of the auditorium.
It was a fiasco! The students were unruly, raucous and extremely disrespectful. The students booed the vice principal as he attempted to speak. It was disgusting to see the blatant lack of respect for him. Millie Fletcher spoke briefly and she, too, was assaulted by catcalls and rudeness, the like of which I had never witnessed in any school setting.
The students yelled and screamed throughout the promotion. They were called out by the teachers who were visibly upset with the lack of respect.
The students were not individually honored. Ms. Fletcher basically told them a story, gave them a collective pat on the back and said in essence, "Thanks for coming."
I feel that if the parents had been allowed to attend, the students would have felt that graduation was important. If they could have walked across the stage and been individually honored for their efforts, they would have felt the self-respect I saw lacking in the school last week.
I would say to Millie Fletcher that the parents of Hillside are an important part of the school. Their students' accomplishments are applauded, and we feel our students were denied that right to have a promotion that all the other schools in the Salt Lake and Granite districts (with the exception of Bennion Junior High) were allowed to have. We should have been able to watch as our student was fully appreciated and honored for their achievements. As it was, it turned out to be a horrible experience for myself and the other parents attend-ing.
Sally Meyer and 10 others
Salt Lake City