SCSD Graduation 2020

By Raquan Pride Green | raquanspg@therisemedia.net 

Year after year, high school graduation ceremonies consist of excited seniors who are eager to walk across the stage and receive their diplomas in the presence of family, friends, classmates, staff, supporters, and sometimes their doubters. Some of us remember being happy to be there because we had waited for graduation day without any worries; some of us were relieved because we did not get confirmation that we were eligible to participate in the ceremony until the day before and the rest of us had to wait until August. Regardless of the path to “the stage,” the one thing that matters most is that we were able to be celebrated with our classmates. There are usually a number of people speaking during the ceremony: the valedictorian, salutatorian, class president, principal, and the superintendent usually offers some words of encouragement. 

The 2020 graduation ceremonies for the Syracuse City School District high school graduates were not typical of previous graduation ceremonies due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. On Tuesday March 17, 2020, students were instantaneously forced to attend school remotely with almost no time to prepare for such an unprecedented transition. The remote learning model was implemented because of the executive order signed by New York State’s Governor Andrew Cuomo and the social distancing policies implemented by the of New York State Department of Health. The students’ new normal consisted of digital learning remotely by way of digital classrooms. Applications that students regularly used for social purposes, such as Facebook and Google, became their digital classroom platforms. Graduation day became an immediate concern for thousands of seniors throughout the nation as their dreams of walking the stage were uncertain and eventually shattered. Winter sports ended abruptly, spring sports and senior trips were eventually cancelled, and proms were held remotely. Districts considered remote graduation ceremonies via digital platforms, physical ceremonies with social distancing guidelines, while some even considered postponing ceremonies with the hopes that the social distancing executive orders would be lifted in their states. The Syracuse City School District chose the “drive thru” model at the SRC Arena on Onondaga Community College's campus. Each graduate was allowed to show up with one carload of family and friends to receive their diplomas and take pictures with school staff and district personnel while wearing masks provided by their schools. Some families utilized their family vehicles while others went as far as renting stretch limousines. The one thing that was consistent with the previous years’ graduation ceremonies was the number of Black Syracuse City School District student graduates. Over 500 Black Syracuse City School District students have graduated every year during the past 5 years and 2020 was no exception. The number of graduates may very well increase among all demographics with the vacating of this year’s New York State Regents Exams, which has been a deciding factor for students graduating on time for decades. 

Nevertheless, “they did it.” The class of 2020 was able to overcome adversity and persevere through a global pandemic to reach their goals while having to adopt a new method of schooling. It took a lot of hard work to reach this goal. They all had to make sacrifices and show up every day, whether they wanted to or not, in order to successfully accomplish their goal. No one can ever dismiss what they all have achieved; certainly, no other generation has had to learn remotely. There is no limit to what they can accomplish if they continue to show up every day for the important things in life. Far too often, the schools and the community focus on the youth who are struggling and why they struggle to determine how they can help them become successful. With that approach comes a lot of time, attention, and resources allocated to those students, which may partly explain why some students who have the potential to perform well choose not to. We should spend more time figuring out why the students who are successful are able to perform well in the same environments with some of the same challenges. Every student experience is different but there are groups of students who are able to overcome their obstacles just as there are groups of students who are not. It is equally important to understand what factors helps and hinders our students. More light needs to shine on what is right with the youth of our community. There are far more young people succeeding and doing things right than those who are not, unfortunately most of the attention is placed upon our challenged youth population. Too often, we are focused on the negativity in our community instead of the positive. While the deficit-based approach is the most commonly used, there are great advantages to utilizing the strength-based approach as well in supporting our youth. Regardless of setting, both approaches when used together will have a positive impact on more youth in our community. There have been countless intervention plans for students who struggle in school but how many continued success plans have been created for students who do well or are in the middle of the pack? How often are strategies used to acknowledge those students and engage them if it is not a priority to do so? We have to give more attention to student successes than we do to their failures, while using their failures as teachable moments to help them be successful going forward.

Graduation is an expectation of many students within their families, however, we rarely see media attention given to our youth when they graduate compared to when they get into trouble with the law. High school graduation is only a stepping-stone toward their long-term success, as a community, we must make a big deal about all students who graduate. A great example is the Adopt a Senior 2020 Onondaga County Facebook group page that has over 4,000 members. Parents posted their senior students in the group in the months leading up to graduation along with pictures from their graduation days to show solidarity with youth missing out on important moments of their lives. Members of the community adopted a senior (some adopted more than one) and showered them with gifts to support and congratulate them. This great practice should continue in the upcoming years. Periodically throughout life, members of the class of 2020 will look back and say to themselves, “I really graduated during one of the strangest times ever.” To all of the graduates, do not let this be the last time we, the city of Syracuse/urban community, get to brag about you. We look forward to seeing where life will take you next. Whatever you do, never stop learning, growing, and challenging yourselves to be the best version of yourselves. You all have a responsibility to tap into your greatness and fulfill your purpose because, “It is a privilege to be young, black, and gifted!”-Raquan S. Pride