How a student petition changed these NC seniors’ high school graduation ceremonies

When Jaylan Allen heard there was a petition to change plans for graduation at the Orange County Schools’ two high schools, he didn’t bother to sign it.

The Orange High senior didn’t think it would make any difference. He felt like he’d waited 12 years for graduation only to have the big day turn out to be a dud.

But after the school board has made changes for each school’s graduation, he’s impressed with what a petition can do.

The original plan for each school was to gather on the football field. That plan satisfied the students but not the Health Department because it involved too large a gathering during the coronavirus pandemic

So the next plan was to have a drive-through graduation in the morning for each school, with one car allowed per graduate. Divorced parents were especially upset with the plan, Cedar Ridge senior Caitlyn Lloyd said, because of the one-car rule.

The students began talking and decided they didn’t like the new plan. They found out about it on Mother’s Day.

“We were really upset,” Lloyd said. “We were crying.”

‘For Big Macs, not Diplomas’

Lloyd and her friend Celeste Pasley, also a Cedar Ridge senior, started a petition titled “Drive-Throughs are for Big-Macs, not Diplomas.”

The petition gathered nearly 900 signatures between the two schools.

After some back and forth, the school board came up with a plan that the students seem to like, the realities of COVID-19 notwithstanding.

There will still be a drive-through portion in the morning, on June 12 at Orange and June 13 at Cedar Ridge. Each student will be permitted one vehicle. Students will be able to get out and march across the stage like in a traditional graduation, only the stage will be empty.

That will take six to eight hours, Lloyd said.

That evening, there will be a drive-in gathering where the students and their guests will watch an edited video of the marches from their cars. For this event, each student will allowed two vehicles, holding up to 20 occupants if that many can fit in the two cars.

Everyone will have to stay in their vehicles.

There is a plan to have more traditional ceremonies once the conditions allow, according to the Orange County Schools website.

“The pandemic has taken away things like prom, senior days, last days of school, signing yearbooks, spring sports, senior nights, and other countless activities celebrating our accomplishments,” the petition reads, “(we took it like champs and knew it was necessary). The bare minimum should be a thorough conversation about a social distanced graduation ceremony!”

The students deserve some closure said Craig Lloyd, Caitlyn’s father.

“It’s tough for them for them. They’re tough kids,” he said. “We’re proud of them standing up for themselves.”

Caitlyn was captain of the girl’s basketball team, he said, and spent the lockdown helping make hand sanitizer. She is headed to UNC Charlotte in the fall.

Craig added that he didn’t think the school board would have reached a compromise without board member Will Atherton, who listened seriously to the students and brought everyone to the table.

Allen, who has worked at Starbucks for almost a year, plans to keep working there after graduation and to begin classes at Alamance Community College. He eventually plans to transfer to a four-year college or university.

He’s changed his tune on activism now and plans to take his friend’s mother’s minivan, with as many as 12 people in two cars, to the evening ceremony.

“I really appreciate everyone’s that’s worked hard to put something together for us as at a moment’s notice,” he said.

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools system will also use the drive-in or drive-through model for some graduations, including Phoenix Academy High, which will hold its ceremony Saturday, June 6, and East Chapel Hill High. Carrboro, Chapel Hill and East Chapel Hill high schools will hold their ceremonies June 13. (See grad2020.chccs.org/ to get the times and to watch the events live.)

The Durham Public Schools system is also using a drive-through format for its graduation ceremonies.

This story was originally published June 4, 2020 at 5:50 AM.