ROBERT WILLETT - rwillett@newsobserver.com
Brian Speight, accepts the diploma for this brother of Matthew Speight a senior at Wake Forest-Rolesville High School who died Sunday in an auto accident. Speight is consoled by Wake County School Superintendent Tony Tata on Friday June 10, 2011 during commencement exercises at the Raleigh Convention Center in Raleigh, N.C.
RALEIGH -- With two empty seats to mark the bittersweet occasion, Wake Forest-Rolesville High School honored two fallen students at today’s graduation ceremony.
Empty seats were set aside at the Raleigh Convention Center for Matthew Speight and Lane Meyer, two of the three students killed in a car crash on Sunday. A graduation gown adorned a seat for Speight who would have turned 18 today and received his diploma while Meyer, 16, was supposed to be a junior marshal.
“It’s a day of celebration and of pride, but it’s tempered by the fact that not all of our seats are full,” said Wake Forest-Rolesville High Principal Tina Hoots before calling for a moment of silence.
As diplomas were handed out to the 460 graduates, Brian Speight walked on stage to applause as he accepted the diploma for his younger brother, Matthew. Brian Speight recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq.
On Sunday evening, Austin Flowers, 16, was behind the wheel of a car that state troopers estimate was going 129 miles per hour just before crashing on Old Pearce Road near Zebulon Road.
The crash killed Flowers, Meyer and Speight. A fourth Wake Forest-Rolesville High student riding in the car, Brenden Pearce, 16, was injured in the crash and remains hospitalized at WakeMed.
