OPRF High School To Promote Equity With Caps, Gowns

OAK PARK, IL --- This year's graduating class at Oak Park-River Forest High School will wear different attire than the outgoing seniors that preceded them for the last 150 years. The District 200 Board of Education recently voted to change commencement attire to caps and gowns instead of dresses and suits with the hope of encouraging equity throughout the school.

In a press release, district officials said the new attire will help to eliminate "inequities based on gender identity, socioeconomic status, and race." It will also help reduce costs for families because the price of a cap and gown will be $27, as opposed to the cost of a new dress or suit.

Since the late 1870s, graduating students at Oak Park-River Forest High School were required to wear white dresses and dark suits to their commencement ceremony. This changed in 2016 to accommodate non-binary, gender fluid and transgender students. As of 2016, the graduation attire could be "an all-white or all-dark dress, skirt and top, pant suit, or suit" regardless of a student's gender.

Superintendent Dr. Joylynn Pruitt-Adams said in a letter to the district that even the 2016 policy could prove difficult for trans students who are not out to their families.

Pruitt-Adams said of the new policy, "At a time when equity is a huge focus of local public discourse, the administration has decided to take what is, to some, a controversial stand in order to truly live--not just talk about--the values that we believe are important to our local community.”

At the same meeting, district officials voted against a proposal to change the venue of this year's commencement ceremony to the UIC Pavilion.

Image via GoogleMaps Streetview