Manatee High School Students Protest Graduation Plans

Updated at 3:24 p.m.

BRADENTON, FL — A group of Manatee High School School students walked out Wednesday to protest graduating seniors possibly being limited to two guest tickets for their graduation ceremony.

More than 100 students walked out during sixth period, the Bradenton Herald reported.

The School Board of Manatee County will discuss graduation plans for the area’s six traditional high schools at their Tuesday meeting, said Mike Barber, communications director for the School District of Manatee County.

The board will discuss the location and dates for each graduation. Also on the table is a limitation of two graduation guest tickets per graduating student because of social distancing efforts during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Barber said.

In the past, most of the area’s high schools have held their graduations at the Bradenton Area Convention Center. Meanwhile, Manatee High School has a long tradition of holding their ceremony at Hawkins Stadium, the school’s football field.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, though, last year the schools held their ceremonies later than planned, at the end of July, and held them at LECOM Park, the spring training home of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

While the graduation ceremonies were originally planned for the third week in May, this year, they’ll likely be moved to the first week of June because that’s when LECOM Park is available.

“It’s proposed right now that the one week LECOM Park is available to us is during that timeframe, the first week in June,” Barber said.

Even if Manatee High holds their graduation on their football field again this year – which they have permission to do – they would be required to schedule it during the same week as the other high schools, he said. “They can still do that. We're just trying to keep all 6 of our high schools equitably.”

Students were limited to two guest tickets last year, he added. While that’s a possibility again this year, Barber also noted that things can change at any moment.

“One thing we’ve learned over the COVID-19 crisis is things change. Things change dramatically and they change fast,” he said. “When we went on spring break last year, we thought we were going to be gone for a week. We came back in August. We had two weeks to switch our campuses to full-time e-learning. Things change dramatically and they change fast.”

With the COVID-19 vaccine distribution continuing, there’s no telling how this could affect graduation as it gets closer to that time of year, Barber said. “If the vaccinations keep up and the rules regarding activities like this change, there’s a possibility there could be changes.”

The students’ protest was premature because decisions about the number of tickets and graduation dates haven’t been set yet, he added.

Student Chloe Forestier started a Change.org petition calling for the School District of Manatee County to allow graduates to have four tickets for the event. As of Thursday afternoon, more than 2,000 people had signed the petition.

“The pandemic has affected us all this year and has been going on for nearly a year now. Seniors are getting hit the hardest in terms of school, having homecoming, grad bash, prom, and many other senior activities cancelled. On top of that, students are only allowed two tickets to graduation and the date for graduation has been changed unexpectedly,” she wrote.

Forestier added, “Many students have more than two family members that want to attend graduation, and some people have also already made plans to come May 22nd. Manatee allowed hundreds of people to attend football games, and the student section was completely packed, with no distancing. Students also had to squeeze together with NO MASKS to take the senior panoramic. Not to mention the THOUSANDS of people who were allowed to go to the Bucs game.”

If you're a parent or student in the School District of Manatee County and would like to comment on high school graduation plans, email Tiffany.Razzano@Patch.com.